Schizophrenia
by Blood Hunter
Summary: Takes place between X1 and X2. The Professor rescues a young man from an Asylum and brings him to the institute. How will the students deal with this maniac?
1. The Beginning

**Schizophrenia**

**Author's Note: **Hello one and all, I would just like to say that I do not own the X-Men, this is a first attempt at fanfiction in a long while, and I hope you all like it. Please remember, it's polite to review, but bad to flame. If no one likes the first chapter I won't be writing a second one. The setting is that it happens between X-Men and X-Men 2.

**Summary: **The Professor rescues a young mutant from the Asylum, will this Psychopath be able to adjust to life at the institute, and will the students be able to adjust to him?

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Chapter 1: **Beginning  
**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

It was a gloriously horrible day outdoors. The clouds were dark overhead, and the rain had been coming down all morning, finally granting relief in the afternoon, only to leave the ground as though it would be muddy forever. Outside the Xavier Institute no one could be heard, no one could even be seen on the grounds. They were all indoors. Even all of the adults were indoors. It was one of those boring days of late April. Everyone was either watching movies or television, or they were reading a book.

Everyone that is, except for a small group of people who were in the lower levels of the mansion. Jean Grey and Rogue stood outside the door of the Cerebro machine. Xavier was inside, he had been going down there every day this week. He said that something was bothering him, but who knows what it was.

Finally the professor wheeled out of the room as the doors opened and closed again behind him. He had a look of concern on his face and closed his eyes as his chair wheeled forward. "Jean. I think you should get Scott. We have somewhere to go."

"Are you trying to find Wolverine?" Rogue asked with a look of hope on her face.

"No child. He is free to do as he pleases, I have been trying to solve a riddle of a different sort." The professor answered.

"What do you mean professor?" Jean asked raising a brow as she and Rogue began to walk behind him as his chair moved to the elevator.

"There is a young man that I think we need to talk to. As soon as we can. Tell Scott to get the car. We're going to Saint Jude's Hospital for the mentally ill." The professor said as they entered the elevator and the door closed behind them.

It wasn't until they were in the car that the rain began to fall again. Rogue was left behind, but Jean sat next to the professor in the car while Scott drove. It started out small, but then began to pour down as if the very world was flooding. Xavier looked out the window with a puzzled look on his face, as if he was contemplating the most complex puzzle one had ever seen. At least it appeared so.

"So where are we going professor?"Scott asked looking in the rearview mirror to see the professor and Jean, before returning his ruby shaded eyes to the road.

"Saint Jude's Hospital for the Mentally Ill. It's an Asylum forty minutes from here." The professor answered without his eyes or face moving at all. He seemed distracted with the falling of the rain.

"An asylum? Why are we going to an Asylum?" Jean asked looking over to the professor.

"Because Miss Grey there is a young man... a pair of young men... there is... someone there that I must talk to. I've located them... him... with Cerebro a week ago. His parents put him there after he became a mutant." The professor answered.

"How could a parent lock away their own child just because he's a mutant?" Jean asked with a tone of disgust in her voice as she looked out the window, the rain was beginning to lighten up a very small bit.

"It is not all as it appears. According to Cerebro, the boy is human, and mutant." The professor responded, still not moving.

"How can that happen? Is there a glitch?" Cyclops asked as he drove the car along.

"I do not know, and that is why we are going there. I must speak with this young man. His case is... quite an interesting one." The professor said as he turned his face away from the window and looked to Jean. "However I fear his parents may have been right about locking him away. Any telepathic link I try to establish with him soon becomes... quite confusing."

"How so?" Jean asked curiously.

"You will have to see it for yourself I'm afraid. It's not something that is easy to describe." The professor said as the rain began to slow to a stop.

The car drove on for a while in silence, no one speaking a word, until finally Scott broke the silence with a simple question. "So what is the kid's name?"

"That is something I have not been able to discover. He refers to himself by different names. Lucas, or Markus, Luke, or Will, or Mike, or Jake, or JT. I can't discover much his mind is... a mess." The professor answered, looking towards the front of the car. "However I have been able to discover his patient number. He repeats it over and over in his mind when they bring him his meals. Patient Number 4976 he says, as if there is a catchy ring to it. It's as if he can't seem to make his mind about who or what he is." The professor said as his gaze returned to the outside world visible through his window.

"Do you think that he is actually insane?" Scott asked with a hint of concern in his voice. He couldn't say that he was looking forward to meeting this boy.

"You're not thinking of bringing him to the institute are you? He could be a danger to the other students!" Jean said looking to the professor.

"Calm down Jean. That is what we are on our way to discover. If possible. I cannot be sure of this boy's sanity or mutation until I speak with him face to face." The professor said with a nod.

"It could be dangerous." Scott said. "We don't even know what his mutation is." Scott pointed out as the car made a turn.

"Which is why I brought you and Jean along." The professor pointed out. "And we shouldn't have too much to worry about. He is on medication, and in restraints. If he had any true powers of destruction he would have used them to escape three months ago when his parents placed him there. No. I don't think we have much to fear, so do not act as though he is any different from you or I." The professor looked in Scotts glasses through the rearview mirror.

"Understood." Scott said with a nod as the car rolled along it's way.

It was thirty minutes later that they reached their destination. It looked a lot like a prison. A sign above the large doors, a payphone in the lobby across from the front desk. Xavier wheeled in with Jean seemingly pushing his chair and Scott walking not too far behind.

"Can I help you?" The nurse asked as the three approached the desk.

"Yes I was wondering if it might be possible to get an audience with a patient you have here, a young boy named Lucas I believe, patient number 4976." Xavier answered with a pleasant smile.

The nurse tapped at a few computer keys on the keyboard in front of her, and then shook her head. "I'm sorry sir, but that patient is under security lock, family only." She said as she got out from behind the desk. "Follow me."

Neither Jean nor Scott acted unnaturally, they both understood that the professor was busy pulling some strings so that they could see this boy. It was always interesting to see the Professor work, one was never sure quite where he drew the lines ethically, though they always stayed the same.

They were taken to a room where all they could see through the door was a bit of light through a small window in the door, a very, very small window. The nurse unlocked the door, and opened it for the professor and his two guests as they went inside. This wasn't what they had expected. There knelt in the middle of the room a very young, scrawny-looking, African American boy. He was tied in a straight jacket, strapped, with ropes going to the four corners of the room. His face was down so that his shoulder length dread locks covered his face from their view. He didn't even look up as they came in. He just knelt there as though he didn't even notice them at all.

The professor wheeled right in front of him, as Jean and Scott stood on either side of the professor while the Nurse closed and bolted the door behind her, leaving them and the boy alone in the room.

"Hello there Lucas." The professor said, in his usual gentle voice, his kind smile gracing his face as though he and the boy were old friends.

"Is it morning? Or is it evening? Or is it afternoon? Or is it midnight? Is it dark, or is it light? Who knows? Who can tell the difference? You can." The boy spoke as though to himself, but quite suddenly his head jerked upwards and his calm blue eyes met with the professor's. The movement was so sudden that Scott had already placed his hands on his shades, just in case.

The professor glanced to jean, a concerned look covered his face for a brief second, before trying again. "What is your name young man?"

"Our name. OUR NAME!" The boy yelled as he stood up on his feet. "We have no name, but we have many names." His hands were still tied in the straight jacket, but even Jean was bracing herself just in case.

"What are your names then?" The professor asked as though waiting to see what would happen.

"Lucas. Markus. Jack. Though the nurses and doctors call us Patient Number 4976. Our name is Patient Number 4976. That is OUR Name." The boy responded as he seemed to be calming down a bit, putting an emphasis on the last 'our'.

"Lucas. I believe that you may be what is known to the world as 'mutant.' I myself am a-." The professor was cut off by the boy.

"NO!" The boy yelled falling to the ground and getting back up. "Lucas is human! Lucas is human! It is Markus and Jack who are mutant. They are mutants!" He seemed to be getting upset.

Scott moved forward as if to try something, but the professor restrained him.

"Nothing wrong with mutants." The boy mumbled. "Nothing wrong with humans either. Best of friends."

Jean looked to Scott, clearly she thought this boy was crazy, as did the Scott from the look on his face. Despite his glasses, it didn't always take a Psychic to tell what he was thinking.

"Why are you here?" The professor asked in a calm tone.

"Lucas' parents put us here! They think we are insane! Traumatized. Traumatized! Traumatized! But we know better... yes we do. We know that something happened in the accident. The car... It wasn't Markus' fault. They lived. They lived indeed. We still live." He rambled, not making much sense at all.

"What accident? What happened?" The professor asked calmly.

"We were driving. That we were. Markus was driving. JT was in the front seat. Lucas had his seat belt, but he was in the back, yes he was. They truck swerved in front, Markus didn't hit the brakes fast enough. Impaled. Glass... Lucas lived... We lived... What have they done with the bodies?" His head had been bent back down, but now it shot up, looking at Jean. "WHAT DID THEY DO WITH THE BODIES?" He yelled as she took a step back.

The professor put out his hands as if to try to calm him down. "What bodies? Calm yourself. Try to clear your mind."

"Clear our minds." The boy muttered. "The bodies! Markus' and Jack's! They should be there! Lucas still has his. Yes we do... We can switch."

"Who can switch?" The professor asked.

"We can. Lucas' parents thought we were mutant, and crazy, but we know better..." He said shaking his head.

"Can you... can you show me what you mean?" The Professor asked raising a brow.

"We... Don't know... It usually happens when we sleep. We can try..." The boy stood up on his two legs and closed his eyes, straining, as though he was trying to break out of his restraints.

Scott was ready for anything, and Jean had her hand on her temple ready to put up a shield in case he tried to attack the professor.

Suddenly the boy's hair began to change, from the tips of the dreads to the head his hair became red instead of black and his eyes turned green instead of the blue they had been. "We did it!" He yelled as he jumped up a bit, his restraints held him down. "We have to get out of here!" He said looking to the professor.

The professor smirked ever so slightly as he moved a bit forward in his chair, this boy definitely seemed to be a mutant, perhaps he was just in denial.

Then he changed again, his hair became blonde instead of red, and his eyes turned brown. Little bolts of static electricity jumped to him from the padded floor beneath him, from the fabric, and from the professor's chair which was closer to him then anything else other then the restraints. You could hear the crackling of them as he moved. "We... we can do it... we just need to think... Lucas wants it back... Get us out..." He looked to Scott as his hair changed back to it's black color, and his eyes back to a blue. He knelt down as though nothing had even happened. "Please..." He said. "Have mercy on us."

The professor sat back in his chair and closed his eyes, as if thinking. _"What do you think Scott?" _The professor asked mentally via his telepathy.

"_I think he's unstable. Insane. Clearly dangerous."_ Scott answered mentally.

"_What do you think Jean?"_ The professor asked her via telepathy.

"_I think he's... He's probably a mutant who can change the pigment of his hair and irises. Possibly even his skin if he were to try, but he associates the mutation with his alternate personalities. He has a clear case of Multiple Personality Disorder. Possibly even Schizophrenia." _Jean answered mentally.

"_Is he a danger to the other students if we bring him to the Institute?"_ The professor asked mentally, as if actually considering it.

"_I... I don't know... He certainly is an interesting case. It's possible that his mental disorders are brought on by post-traumatic stress and that they'll go away with time. From what he said it sounds as though he was in some sort of accident and his two friends were killed. That's when the Multiple Personality Disorder began." _Jean answered telepathically.

"Lucas, Markus, Jack." The Professor said out loud after a few moments of audible silence. "I'm going to try to enter your mind. This won't hurt. I just want to help. I want you to relax, okay?"

The boy nodded. "Okay."

The Professor wheeled forward a bit, placing his hands on either side of the boy's head, closing his eyes and concentrating.

The world went to a void. There was one light, coming from above, and there, in the twilight, stood three young men in front of the professor.

The first was the young, seventeen year old, African American boy that was there in the Asylum with them, in the straight jacket, but here was wearing a pair of carpenter jeans and a blue t-shirt. His hair was the same, in the dread locks that reached his shoulders.

The second was different. He was a young man who was obviously in his mid twenties. He was larger then the young African American boy, about six foot four inches while Lucas was about five foot ten inches, and clearly he was of a different background. He was Caucasian, and his red hair, freckles, and green eyes made it clear that he was of some Celtic Background. The one thing that stood out about him the most was a scar that ran along his left arm, from his shoulder to his wrist. He wore a pair of nice pants, dress shoes, and a button down collar shirt. He was dressed nicely and smiled nicely too.

The third was different even then the other too. His hair was blonde like gold, and his eyes brown. He looked German more then anything. He was younger then the second guy, but older then the first, probably eighteen, or early twenties. He was taller then Lucas was, but shorter then Markus, probably about six foot even. He wore a pair of swimming trunks, without a shirt, and had a crimson brand on his chest in the shape of an R in a C. He stood with his hands at his side as if perfectly okay with everything.

"Where are we?" The young African American boy asked.

"Inside your mind." The Professor said. "Who are you?" He asked looking to the other two.

"I'm Markus." The red haired one answered.

"I'd be Jack." The blonde haired one answered with a small laugh.

"I see... Lucas..." The Professor said looking over to the young African-American boy. "I want you to think back to the accident. Think. Remember it. I want to be there. I want to see what was happening." The Professor said as he walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. There in the void, they were all as they wished to be.

**Flashback**

The day was bright and sunny, the smell of ocean water wasn't far off, you could almost taste it and hear the waves. In the jeep there sat Markus, the red haired one, Driving just as he looked in the void. Next to him sat Jack, wearing just his swimming trunks. In the back sat the young African boy, Lucas, with a large smile on his face with only one difference then the boy that the Professor had seen before, this Lucas was bald.

Music was blasting, and the car was going fast. Faster then what was legal. It didn't matter, they were having fun. Lucas was singing along to the music, tapping the strap of his seat belt as though his fingers were drumsticks. Markus bobbed his head up and down to the beat of the song as he drove, and Jack played the air guitar. They were the perfect pretend band.

Suddenly, the fun was over. A large eighteen wheeler pulled out in front of them. The Jeep rammed into the back of the side of it at over eighty miles an hour. It was gruesome. The car flipped upwards, the back end going up the front end going down. Jack had been thrown against the trailer of the truck and crushed by the car, Markus had been stuck to the driver seat by the piece of window-shield glass that went through his chest cavity.

Lucas was pinned in the back of the crumpled up jeep and wreckage. It was about ten minutes later that he saw light again, after he had been unconscious, the rescue crew was trying their best to dig him out. They succeeded, though it would be a long road to recovery.

**End Flashback**

They were all back in the void, the Professor, Lucas, Markus, and Jack. The professor shook his head. "So you're..."

"I don't know how." Markus said walking forward a bit, into the light. "But what you see is what you get. All of us. Here."

They were back in the padded room. The professor sat back in his wheel chair as the young man in front of him stood on his two feet.

"Did we show you what you wanted to see?" He asked. "Can you get us out?"

Scott looked with alarm to Jean who put an arm on the Professor's shoulder.

The professor nodded. "I want to bring you to my school. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. You can stay there with us, live there, and learn to use your... talents."

The young man shook his head so hard that his dreads twirled and hit him in the face. "Markus has been through school. JT is in college. Lucas is in highschool."

"We'll work the details of the schooling part out later. Right now however you can either live there, or here." The professor answered.

"Professor." Scott started as if in protest. He was stopped by the professor raising his hand. The professor knew what he was doing... but did this guy do something when the Professor was in his mind? Could he do that? Scott didn't know what this guy's powers were. This whole thing was just... weird.

"Done. Get us out of here." The young man said quickly.

"And you'll meet with Jean once a week. To help you adjust to life now." The professor added.

The young man looked up at her and back down the ground. "Is she Jean?" He asked.

"Yes..." The professor answered.

"Fine." Lucas answered. "Jack will do it."

"Good enough." The professor said with a slight smile. "Now. We must talk with the administrator. We'll be back in a few minutes."

"Hurry. We want to get out." The boy said in a hushed tone.

"I know. Just wait a few more minutes." The professor said with an apologetic tone.

"Fine." The boy answered as the professor, Jean, and Scott exited the room, leaving the boy alone once again in his restraints.

Once they were outside, it was Scott who voiced his opinion first. "Professor, are you sure about this? That boy seems..."

"Odd? Different?" The professor asked looking up to Scott. "Yes. He... They are."

"They?" Jean asked stopping.

"They." The professor answered. "I want you to enter his mind the first time you counsel him. They will explain it." The professor said as they resumed traveling down the hall.

They arrived at the door for the administrator of the Asylum, Dr. Laurence Byrd. Scott opened the office door and the secretary met them with a smile. It was a small outside area with a few seats along the wall, and the secretary's desk next to a door, that led into the administrator's office.

"Professor Xavier. I need to speak with Dr. Byrd." The professor said as he wheeled up to the desk, Jean and Scott in tow.

The secretary smiled. "Just wait one moment please." She said with a smile as she pressed the intercom button. "Dr. Byrd, a Professor Xavier here to see you."

"Send him right in." The Dr's voice came back over the intercom rather quickly. The professor must've been doing his thing again.

"I'll take this one alone." The professor said looking to Scott and Jean as the Secretary opened the door for him.

"Are you sure?" Scott asked as Jean took a seat.

"Yes. Dr. Byrd and I know each other quite well." The professor said as he rolled into the office, and the secretary shut the door behind him.

Scott took a seat next to Jean glancing to the door and then to Jean. "He knows this guy?"

"Dr. Byrd taught Biology at the institute, along with a few other sciences." Jean answered.

"How come I never met him?" Scott asked raising a brow.

"He only taught for about a year." Jean said looking to the door. "When he left he said he was going to France for a job there. I wonder what he's doing here..."

**Inside the Office**

"What are you doing here Larry?" The professor asked with a smile.

"My projects in France failed, I took a job here, got promoted, and am now here." The Doctor said with a smile. "I actually was just relocated here last week. I was going to call you up, but I suppose that you've just saved me the trouble. What can I do for you Charles?"

"You have a very... unique patient here." The professor started. "Patient Number 4976 I believe. Lucas Serf."

"Ah yes. The Schizoid." The doctor said with a small laugh.

"Schizoid?" Professor asked.

"A nickname the Nurses gave him. He is certainly an interesting case, he seems to have a combination of Multiple Personality Disorder and Schizophrenia." The doctor answered.

"Is he dangerous?" The professor asked.

"Why are we discussing my patient Charles?" The doctor asked in return.

"I want to bring him to my school." Charles answered.

"Charles. His parents have sent him here. They believe he's a danger to himself and others, so do the courts, and so do I." The doctor replied. "He's attacked four nurses, breaking the leg of one, and another nurse came out with burn marks on her arms. He's in the jacket for a reason."

"So you're aware that I've already visited him." The professor stated.

"Yes. The Surveillance cameras showed me that you were here. I was hoping you would stop by." The doctor responded.

"Then you've seen that he is a mutant." The professor said it more as a statement then a question.

"Which is even more reason to keep him here. Imagine if the media got a hold of the fact that he existed. The headline: X-Gene causes insanity! It would be a nightmare. Besides that, we haven't been able to discover exactly what his mutation is. We would need to run more tests." Dr. Byrd said standing up from behind his desk and standing by his window.

"I entered his mind Larry. He's not insane, he's confused." Charles said as he moved his chair a bit so that he was looking straight at the doctor.

"What do you mean? What did you see?" Larry asked.

"I saw three people. An accident, where two of those people died. I think it might be possible, that the boy is a mutant whose body acts as a vacuum. He absorbed the life-forces, the souls, the minds, of his friends." The professor said.

"Or it's possible that the stress caused by the trauma forced his mind to break, creating two alternate personalities within his mind, which he personifies as his lost friends." Larry argued.

"Then how do explain the changing of the hair, of the eyes, how do you explain the non-related mutations?" Charles asked.

"I don't know Charles. Perhaps he is just a very powerful mutant. That is why he needs to be kept under care." Larry said sitting back down behind his desk.

"Then perhaps he should be put under my care. Who better to treat him then with someone with the facility to hold a mutant with unknown abilities if necessary? Who better to treat him then the man that can enter his mind and talk with him man to men?" The professor asked.

The doctor fell silent for a moment. "His family has no visitation. The father died shortly after he was admitted, and the mother moved to Jamaica to be with her sister. He'll be placed in solitary , private room, no visitors, until further notice."

"Thank you." The professor said with a knowing smile.

"Don't thank me yet Charles, you're going to have your hands full with this one." The doctor said standing up from behind his desk. "If things get bad, promise me, we'll bring him back here, and he does not leave the grounds of the Institute. He is to be under watch at all hours."

"Of course friend." Charles said with a smile as the two began walking out the door.

**Outside the Office**

"What if he..." Scott was cut off by the office door opening up. The professor and the doctor came out one behind the other.

"Thank you for stopping by Charles." The doctor said with a nod. "We'll have staff follow you to the Institute with Patient number 4976 and assist you with moving him in. After that he is under your care Professor Xavier."

"I understand Doctor Byrd." The professor said with a nod. "Come." He said looking to Scott and Jean. "We should wait in the car."

Scott and Jean didn't say anything, they just stood up and followed the professor out the door, down the hall, into the elevator, out of the elevator, out the doors, and to the car. Scott was the first to speak.

"Professor, do you really think it's a good idea to bring him to the school? What if he attacks one of the students?" Scott asked.

"He MIGHT, be insane, but he is not stupid. He knows that if he messes up, he'll be sent back here, and he doesn't want that." The professor answered. "Besides, I do not believe that he is purely insane."

Scott nodded, taking the professor for his word as he got inside the car and started it up. This was going to be an interesting day for sure. Although Scott wasn't entirely sure what he thought about it all, he was sure that he was nervous.

A white van pulled up behind them, Scott could see them in the rearview mirror. Four men clad in white led the young man into the back of the van with four long poles. They were keeping out of reach of him. He was still in the jacket, and he wasn't struggling, he was just walking with his head down. Obediently going as they hoisted him into the back of the van.

"Are you sure about this professor?" Jean asked looking from the boy to him.

"I'm sure Jean. Don't worry. I'm sure he'll be fine." The professor said with a nod.

"I just have one question." Scott said looking to the professor via the rearview mirror.

"Yes Scott?" The professor asked, looking up.

"Who is he rooming with?"

**End of Chapter 1**


	2. Institution

**Author's Notes: **Well, I got one review, and three alerts, so evidently at least three people liked the story enough to read it again. Thus, I decided to continue with the story. Thank you evileyekat for your review and your encouragement. Please be sure to review and keep reviewing! And now... for chapter two. Institution.

**IIIIIIIIII**

**Chapter 2: **Institution

**IIIIIIIIII**

It was still that same gloriously horrible day outdoors. Rogue had been downstairs with the professor and Jean before they left, but now they had left her here and Scott had driven them off to Saint Jude's. Rogue was left there, sitting there, in the institute, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

It was Saturday, and a boring one at that. It had been raining all morning, taking a brief break for lunch, and then resumed again. Rogue sat reading by the window as the rain beat against it. It was her room, it was her sanctuary.

Normally there would have been yelling and shouting and general noise going on down below her. Basketball, soccer, training, all of it was ceased for the day. It was too wet, even for those mutants with amphibious powers.

Some students just stayed in their rooms, reading, writing, playing board games. Others were in the living room watching television. Some were in the rec room, playing pool and other games while listening to some background music. Bobby Drake was one of those. The iceman. He and John were shooting billiards, playing pool, as it's called. John was winning.

Ororo was in her garden, above the institute, watering her indoor plants in her own special way. With a blink of her she could have rolled the heavy clouds back and made it bright and sunny, but evidently, she didn't always mess with nature. That and she obviously was in a somewhat stormy mood, her face looked sad.

Three girls came down the stairs from the dorms in the main hall. Kitty, Jubilee, and Rayne as they were called. They had finished studying, and were evidently bored by the looks on their faces. It was just that kind of day. Even those people who were doing something were bored out of their minds. The girls went and joined those students who were watching a movie in the living room. "Patch Adams' seemed to be a favorite recently. Not wanting to sit through the movie, again, they decided to go to the kitchen.

Rogue headed downstairs to get something to eat, she was tired of reading, her gloved hands couldn't turn the pages that well, so she was sliding the gloves back on as she came down the stairs. The gloves, the constant reminder of what she was. It was almost tragic really, but even they paled in comparison to the white streak in her hair. That was the real reminder.

"Has anyone seen my History book?" A random student called out as he passed her by in the hall. Most of the students didn't even know the story, so they didn't give her a second look. The Professor thought that it was best if they kept what happened under wraps. No one wanted all the students getting themselves worked up over it, especially Rogue, now that it was over.

"Hey Rogue." Kitty said as Rogue came into the kitchen.

"Hey ya'll." Rogue said nodding to the three of them as she went over to the fridge. She wasn't completely anti-social... but she had been through a lot recently, and she was constantly afraid of getting near anyone at all.

The girls continued eating whatever salads they had made for themselves and talked amongst themselves of whatever they had been talking about. This time the topic was sports, or that is, the boys playing them. The institute had it's own little intermural baseball teams, it was a way to pass extra curricular time.

Rogue delved into the fridge, trying to find whatever it was she wanted to eat. What did she want? Was she even all that hungry? Or was she just eating because there was nothing else to do. Not entirely sure she closed the fridge and went into the cabinet, grabbing a soda.

She left the kitchen without really saying much, her long sleeves and gloved hands could barely judge how warm the soda was as she walked down the hall.

"Hey." A young voice said to her as she walked, looking up and stopping for a moment she realized it was Bobby. The only person here who had been at least friendly to her after all the things with Logan and everything else.

"Hi." She said in her southern accented way, as she shifted a bit from walking to standing.

"Here, let me get that for you." He said as he reached out towards her soda bottle.

Instinctively Rogue pulled away a bit, but then realizing he meant the bottle of soda she handed it to him. It was weird to watch the frost go from his hand to the bottle, cooling it down, almost like a reverse microwave.

"Thanks." Rogue said as she took it back from him with a slight half-smirk.

"No problem." Bobby said with a nod. "Hey, a few of us were thinking about going to the movies later, or renting and watching a movie here, you interested?"

"Well... Ah... Don't see why not." Rogue answered after a brief pause. She really wasn't sure yet what to think of this guy. One minute he was being polite, the next it was like he was flirting. At least she knew that she didn't have to worry about him trying anything. He had seen what happened to Logan when Rogue touched him.

"Cool. It'll be after dinner so... I guess I'll see you around then." He said as he started walking back to his dorm.

"See ya." Rogue said a bit weakly as he walked away, and she continued walking in the direction she had been. Where was she even heading? She didn't know, she just wanted to walk a bit, and stretch her legs from their old sitting position that she'd just kept for the rest of the morning.

Where was the professor anyway? He had left a few hours ago, and as far as she knew there had been no word from him, Jean, or Scott since then. No word from Logan either, he had left just after the whole Ellis Island thing, and she hadn't heard from him since. Why was she always left behind? That's what it seemed like anyway.

It was then she found herself in a classroom, she had turned in and walked there. Having nothing else to do she sat down on the sill of the window, with her soda bottle, drinking it and looking out the window as the rain fell from the sky and pattered against the glass.

Was the professor in an accident? Was all the rain causing trouble on the roads? They could handle themselves she was sure, but that did not mean that she wasn't concerned anyway. She turned away a bit, and took another drink of her soda bottle. This wasn't like her. She didn't even like soda. What the heck was she doing?

She looked out the window again, as if expecting to see something different then what was there a second ago. Surely enough, there was something different. The car that they had left in was coming in as the gate opened, Scott was driving, but there was something behind them. She couldn't really tell all that well because of the rain, but quite suddenly the rain stopped, she understood why as she saw Storm come down to the ground by the front door.

She went to the door to meet up with them and to see what was happening, she was curious, and she didn't like only knowing half the story. Stepping out Ororo gave her a smile and then looked to the car as it pulled up the drive, and a rather large white van pulling up behind it. Bars across it's back windows, and the word's "Saint Jude's: Hospital for the Mentally ill" written on the sides of it.

"What's goin' on?" Rogue asked looking to Ororo.

"You would know better then I." Ororo said glancing back to the car as they got out of it.

The professor wheeled up with a smile on his face. "Ah good. Storm, Rogue, I'd like you to meet the newest addition to the Institute." He said as two of the men got out of the front of the truck, one of them coming over to the Professor.

"Nice to meet you." Ororo said to the rather muscular, handsome man that had just come up to the professor.

The Professor laughed. "Not him." He said looking to the male nurse. "Yes?"

"Do you want us to just let him off here, or did you have a cell prepared?" The man asked as though it were the most normal question in all the world.

The professor shook his head. "No cell will be necessary, just let him out here." Xavier said with a slight smile as the man nodded and headed to the back of the truck with the other man.

"Who did you..." Ororo started but the professor raised a hand as if to silence her.

The two male-nurses opened the doors to the back of the truck, using the rods they had in the front with them to lead a rather young-looking man out the back of the truck. His skin was even darker then Ororo's, and his eyes were bluer then the sky, his hair was dark black, and shoulder length, tied in dread locks. All of that contrasting with the stark white straight jacket he wore with a white pair of pants.

"And for Goodness sake let him out of that jacket." The professor added as they unhooked the rods from the rings in his straight jacket.

"Professor..." Rogue started but was motioned to be quiet the same way Ororo had been.

The one man closed the doors to the back of the truck as the other started undoing the straps that kept the young man's arms around him. Undoing the last one, and jumping back just in case. The young man's arms swung forward quite suddenly, audibly cracking as they did so, obviously not having been released for a while.

The young man rolled his shoulders, groaned, and rolled his head around a bit, loosening his neck as he walked forward on his own power. So good to be free.

"Thank you." He said coming up towards the professor. "Thank you so much!" He said with a grin and a deepish tone suddenly coming to his voice that almost scared Rogue.

"Rogue, Ororo, I would like you to meet the newest addition to the institute. Schizoid." The professor said with a good humored smile.

Ororo smiled as best as she could muster and offered her hand for a shake. "Nice to meet you." She said.

"Schizoid... Schizoid. Schizophrenia, Schizophrenic." He mumbled quickly to himself. "Perhaps. Perhaps. Not really though. Not really." He shook his head a bit and then shook the hand Ororo had offered him. "The pleasure's all ours."

She smiled and withdrew her hand after shaking his. This guy was... insane.

"And this is Rogue." The professor said gesturing to the young woman who stood next to Ororo.

"Hey." Rogue said waving so slightly, she wasn't sure what to think of this... guy.

"Rogue? What kind of a name is Rogue?" He asked looking her in the eyes. His were so blue that they were almost hypnotizing when she first looked in them, he smiled, but his smile only made her more afraid of him, there was a look, a gleam, in his eye that scared her.

"What kinda'f a name is Schizoid?" She asked in rebuttal.

"Schizoid is our name. Our new name. Easier to go by one then by three." He answered as if in riddle, as though he were playing a game. It was then that he noticed her hair of two different colors. "Your bangs... Does your hair change too?" He asked as he reached for it.

She drew back and slapped his hand away, her glove hitting the sleeve of his straight jacket as she did so. "No." She said obviously annoyed by this point.

This was obviously going to take a lot of getting used to. Hopefully it would get easier as time went on, and not more and more difficult. Professor Charles Xavier could only hope.

"Our hair changes too, when we change, but we have to change first." The young man said as he backed away from her a bit. He didn't really want to frighten her, in fact he seemed to be more intimidated by her then he was by anyone else he had met so far.

"That's... interesting." Ororo said looking to the Professor. It was evident by the look on her face that she could not believe what was going on. The men from the Asylum had already driven away, this boy was the newest student here. God help them all.

"Rogue I was wondering if you would be willing to show Schizoid around, maybe introduce him to some of the other students?" The professor asked.

Her eyes got wide and shot over to the professor who gave her a pleading look that told her she didn't really have much of a choice. She closed her eyes and breathed a bit before agreeing. "Yeah... sure." Rogue said hesitantly.

"Thank you. Ororo, I'd like to meet with you in my office, and you two as well." He said looking to Scott and Jean.

"Sure professor." Storm said with a nod as they all headed inside. As soon as Storm was inside it began raining again.

The professor, Jean, Scott, and Ororo started heading off down the hallway, leaving Rogue and Schizoid by themselves in the foyer. "So... What's your power?" Rogue asked as she started walking down the hall in the opposite direction, expecting the guy to follow.

"Lucas is human. Lucas has no power, but the other two. They have powers. Markus and Jack, they are mutants." He answered.

It seemed to Rogue like everything this guy said was a riddle, like it was all just a game to him. "Whatever." She said with a slight shrug. "This is the living room." She said as they stopped outside a door in the hall. On the inside it was easy enough to see the living area, and the television with a group of teenagers sitting around watching a movie. Schizoid peered in through the door.

"Jack's seen that movie." He said with a slight smile. "The girl dies."

"Uh huh..." She said as they started walking again. "This here's the kitchen." She said as they went inside, it was then she realized that Kitty, Rayne, and Jubilee were still in here.

"Hey there." Kitty said as Rogue and the new guy came in.

"Hey ya'll." Rogue said again.

"Aren't you gonna introduce us?" Jubilee asked with a smirk.

"Jubilee, Kitty, and Rayne, this is Schizoid. Schizoid, Jubilee, Kitty, and Rayne." She said as she gestured to each one as she said their name.

"Schizoid huh? What's your power?" Rayne asked.

"Uh... We... that is... um..." He stammered. Rogue didn't understand what was with this guy, he was fine one minute, and now... he was fumbling like he didn't know what he was even talking about, like he was scared of something. Suddenly his hair changed color, his black dread locks became red in color, and his blue eyes turned green. He shifted positions a bit and nodded. "That's one of 'em." He said suddenly now confident.

"Cool." Kitty said with a slight smirk. "What else can you do?"

"It's... complicated. We can do some different things." He said with a nod.

"We?" Jubilee asked with a raised brow.

"We." Schizoid answered as he pointed to himself.

"I guess that explains the codename." Rogue mumbled to herself. "Come on Schizoid. I'll show you the rest." She said as she headed out.

"Nice to meet you ladies." He said with a nod to them, a half bow really, and followed Rogue out the door.

"I guess that explains the straight jacket." Kitty said with a slight giggle after Rogue and Schizoid had left.

"What's with you?" Rogue asked after they had left the kitchen.

"With which?" He asked.

"Who are you?" Rogue asked getting a little frustrated.

"We are Lucas, Markus, and Jack, that's who WE are. Easier to just call us Schizoid though. We think we're getting the hang of this..." He said looking around a bit. "It's a little weird. SHUT UP!" He yelled suddenly as he turned around behind him. "Sorry." He said looking back to Rogue. "It takes a little getting used to."

"Okay..." Rogue said as she shook her head a bit. "Down there's the classrooms, you'll see them more come Monday. And upstairs are the dorms, guys to the left of the stairs, girls to the right of the stairs, and here's the rec room." She said gesturing to another door in the hall.

"Rec room huh?" He asked looking in. His hair turned again, blonde this time, and his eyes turned from green to brown. "Our kinda place." He said with a smile. "Can we play?" He asked looking to her.

"Maybe later." Rogue said turning away to continue the tour.

"Oh come on. Play us in one game of pool. Checkers? Monopoly? Chess? Thumb-wrestling? Staring contest? Anything?" He asked rather quickly in a string of words as though he were trying to get it all in one breath.

"Why am ah doin' this?" She asked as though she was talking to herself.

"We don't know." Schizoid answered.

"Would you stop talking about yourself in the plural? You're starting to make me think you're crazy." Rogue asked, evidently annoyed.

"You're the one talking to yourself." He mumbled as he turned to follow.

"What was that?" She asked still obviously annoyed.

"Nothing." He said as his hair changed back to the black color it had been and his eyes turned from brown to their hypnotizing blue again. "Lead on."

"Could you stop doing that? I mean I know you must like to use your power but-." Rogue asked.

"That's not really our power." Schizoid answered. "Lucas has no power. Markus and Jack are mutants."

"You really are crazy." Rogue shook her head. "Come on. I'll introduce you to Bobby." She said as she entered the Rec room. "Bobby, John, this is... Schizoid. He's new." She said as she and the new guy came into the room where Bobby and John were playing pool.

"Hey there." Bobby said coming up. "Bobby Drake. Ice-man." He offered his hand, which Schizoid shook.

John just nodded from where he was. "Pyro." He said gesturing to himself.

"Nice to... nice to meet you." Schizoid said with a nod of his head. His eyes scanned the room, looking around, this was a nice place, he would like it here.

"Uh... not to pry or anything, but... that's an interesting fashion statement." Bobby said motioning to the straight jacket he was wearing.

Schizoid looked down at himself and smiled a bit. "Oh. That's not a statement, no, not a statement at all. We were forced to wear it, it was forced on us." He said looking around a bit.

"Forced?" Bobby asked.

"He just got out of Saint Jude's." Rogue answered.

"The asylum." Schizoid added. "They made us wear it. They weren't very nice. They were scared of mutants, but WE aren't mutant, Lucas is human, Jack and Markus are mutants."

John raised a brow at the guy and looked to Rogue who shrugged. This guy, as far as she was concerned, should have never left the Asylum.

"Well it's nice to have you here." Bobby said with a smile to him. "Rogue showing you around?"

"Yes. That she is." He said with a nod of his head.

"Okay. Well... Good luck." John said as he took a shot on the pool table, missing the ball he had hoped to pocket.

"Where are we going to next?" Schizoid asked Rogue as the two left the Rec Room.

"Well do you think you can sit quietly for a while?" Rogue asked skeptically.

"It's never quiet. No one hears them, but Lucas hears them, always, Markus and Jack, Lucas hears them." He responded as his eyes shifted a bit.

"Well uh... Professor!" She almost yelled as the Professor and Jean came out of his office.

"Thank you Rogue, you may go now. Jean and I will show Schizoid the lower levels." He said with an understanding nod.

Rogue didn't even say goodbye, she just nodded and left, Schizoid watching her walk away, and then quicken her pace when she saw he was watching, and then run up the stairs. His gaze returned to the professor. "Lower levels?" He asked curiously. "What are the lower levels?"

"Follow me." The professor said as he and Jean began moving past Schizoid and down the hall. Schizoid turned and followed rather quickly walking behind with his head down as the three moved down the hall, stopping at a spot in the wall that opened to reveal a cylinder-like elevator. The professor wheeled inside, Jean following, and Schizoid paused for a moment before finally moving in.

"Where are we going?" Schizoid asked.

"To the lower levels. Don't worry Schizoid. I think you're going to like this." The professor said as the elevator door slid shut.

The door opened again to a rather large metallic hallway, with round doors and X's through them. Blue and grey, and white, and yellow, these colors simply repeated themselves throughout the area. The turned left out of the elevator, a door was at the end of the hall, and there were several doors on their way to that one.

Schizoid's blue eyes scanned the hallway in front of them as if it were something that he had been longing to see, when in reality he was just in amazement.

"This is the basement of the mansion, the true headquarters for my X-Men." The professor said proudly.

"Your what?" Schizoid asked looking to Jean. "Some of my students show exceptional talent, Jean, Scott, Ororo, and I have been training them to be a team, a peace-keeping task force of mutants to better the world and try to help keep the peace between humans and mutants."

"Best of friends." Schizoid said still looking around, almost as though he were hardly listening to what the professor was saying.

"Yes. Best of friends." The professor said as if humoring him. "That has been my dream for the entire world, for mutants and humans to peacefully co-exist, as friends, rather than enemies."

"So... where does this lead?" He asked pointing to one of the doors.

"That is the medical bay, Jean here is a doctor, a physician." The professor said with a smile.

"And this?" he asked pointing to another door. "That is the war room. Where we keep uniforms and things of that nature."

"And this one?" He asked pointing the door at the end of the hall.

"That is Cerebro, a machine that allows me to amplify my abilities in order to connect with any mind on this planet. It's how I found you." The professor said with another smile. "Now come, I want to show you something else." He said as he started moving towards the opposite end of the hall.

They reached another door quite shortly, and it opened to reveal a rather large metal room, there were suits, and the biggest and coolest thing of all that was held down here, the X-Jet. Schizoid's eyes widened. "We like it here." He said looking around a bit. The suits didn't look very comfy. Black leather, padded but still not very comfy. His main interest seemed to be on the plane though.

"Markus wants to see it." He said pointing to the plane.

"Well, I'm afraid..." Jean started but was cut off by the professor.

"Why does Markus want to see it?" The professor asked.

"Markus was an engineer, graduated from Oxford. Plus, he knows aircraft. His father was a pilot in the SAS." Schizoid answered. "Lucas doesn't know anything about planes, but Markus does. Jack doesn't really know anything about them either..." He said looking to Jean. "We don't have to do it now, but maybe later?"

"Maybe later." The professor answered. "For right now I want you to take one of those hooded sweatshirts." He said pointing to a shelf that had them stacked up. "I don't want you scaring any more people with that straight jacket you have on."

"We didn't put it on. It was put on us." Schizoid said moving over to the case with the sweatshirts in it.

"Yes well, all the same." The professor said gesturing.

Schizoid lifted off the Straightjacket, he wasn't wearing a shirt under it. His build was quite average, a little bit of muscles but lean muscles, like a dancer's build rather then a body builder's. He reached over and grabbed a sweatshirt, putting it on and stretching a bit. "Comfy." was all he said.

Jean smirked and looked to the professor, was he thinking of training this one to be on the X-Men?

"Now. I want you and Jean to go to the medical bay. She's going to give you a physical and mental evaluation. Is that okay with you?" The professor asked.

"Yeah... sure... we guess... uh... is she going to enter our mind like you did?" Schizoid asked a bit nervously.

"Not yet." The professor answered. "Remember though that you promised to meet with her once a week."

"Yeah. We promised. Lucas promised. Jack will do it." He answered a bit sheepishly.

"Why will Jack do it?" The professor asked as he raised a brow. This boy was probably the most interesting case he had ever seen, but it was beginning to worry him. Was this boy really insane? And if not would it ever be possible for him to adjust to life now and live normally?

"Because Lucas is shy, and Markus flirts too much." Schizoid answered.

"I want her to meet with all three of you, one by one. If that's okay." The professor said, not really sure if he was making any sense.

"Okay..." Schizoid said with a brief pause. "Now what?"

"Now you'll follow Miss Gray to the medical bay." The professor said with a nod. "And I'll meet you upstairs in a little while."

"Okay..." Schizoid said as they started to leave. Schizoid followed Jean to the door he had pointed out before, and they went inside while the professor took the elevator upstairs.

The professor wheeled out of the elevator and down the hall a bit, before he was stopped by a very disturbed Rogue.

"What is up with that guy?" Rogue asked as she stopped him in the hall, she didn't really like him, there was something odd about him.

"He is a very unique person. Is he not?" The professor asked with a slight smile.

"He's nuts." Rogue answered.

"We're not entirely sure on that my dear. Not yet. Jean is downstairs examining him right now, we'll know sure enough." The professor responded.

"Is he... Is he safe?" Rogue asked rubbing her arm a bit nervously.

"I'm sure he's quite safe." The professor responded. "Why? Did he do something to hurt you?"

"No... but... Ah don't like 'im. He's... strange." Rogue said a bit timidly.

"We are all weird my dear. How are we to call ourselves tolerant if we cannot welcome those who are more different then even we are?" The professor asked with a slight smile. Now he knew why he liked this young man so much. He was possibly the physical manifestation of what had been the professor's dream for many long years.

Human and mutants peacefully coexisting. Here was this boy, if such a thing was possible, who might even be the physical manifestation of that dream, mutants and humans, living together, in harmony. Or was it in chaos? Or was it all just in this boys head? The professor didn't know for sure, but hopefully the tests with Jean would bear some more results that would lead them to the truth of the matter.

"Ah... still don't like him." Rogue said shaking her head a bit. "He makes me nervous, he doesn't make any sense." She argued.

"Don't worry Rogue. I'm sure he'll adjust to life here. He just needs time to adjust." The professor said. "Perhaps if you and some of the other students tried including him a little it might help."

"Why was he in the Asylum anyway?" Rogue asked.

"I don't know. From what I gathered his parents put him there after he was in a car accident, they think it caused him to shatter mentally." The professor said in answer.

"Doesn't take a genius to figure that one." She said under her breath.

"What was that?" The professor asked.

"Nothing." Rogue answered. "So.. Where is he staying anyway?" She asked.

**End of Chapter 2**


	3. Examination

**Author's Notes:** Thank you to my many reviewers! Please keep doing it! It was very encouraging, and very helpful. Now, I know I put a disclaimer in the first chapter, but I would like to reissue it. I do not own X-Men. I do however claim ownership of Schizoid. DO NOT USE HIM AS YOUR OWN! If you wish to use the character, please, ask me, I'll probably say yes, it's just nice to be asked. Now to respond to your reviews.

**Gremblin: **Thanks for the review! I've always kinda wondered myself about that, hence the fic. Glad you like it! Keep Reviewing! And thanks for adding this story to your favorites!

**Skye Knightley: **Thanks! Keep reviewing! I'm glad you like the fic!

**Evil Eye Kat: **Thanks for the review! As for them getting along... well... we'll see.

**Sal: **Thanks luv. And thanks for pointing out the typo, I'll fix that.

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Chapter 3: Examination

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Schizoid entered the room behind Jean, it was quite a sight to behold, a full medical wing, beds, scanners, monitors, the whole nine yards. All of that, and yet he didn't seem too impressed with it. He just walked over to the bed and hopped up, sitting on the edge of it as though this were any other doctor's office.

"So..." Jean said as she got some equipment together. "Schizoid. How are you feeling today?" She asked with a smile as she pulled out some things from a drawer. Gloves, pen light, popsicle stick, tiny hammer, stethoscope, thermometer, all were in her little arsenal.

"How do we feel?" He asked as though he were talking to himself. "We feel... Sore. Hungry. Tired. Though I suppose you were wanting the usual 'okay' answer."

"Are you feeling ill?" Jean asked, as though to specify the question.

"No. Not really. We feel a bit dizzy sometimes, but only after we switch." He answered.

"Dizziness?" Jean asked as she put on the gloves and the doctor's coat, sticking some of that arsenal in her pocket before putting her glasses on. She actually looked like a doctor now.

"Only after we change." He answered.

"The way the professor wanted me to do this, is he wanted me to examine each of you, one by one. Now... how many of you... are there?" She asked.

"We are three." He answered. "We three." He said again, as if finding something catchy about the tune of it. "Lucas, Markus, and Jack. Three." He said with a strong nod as Jean took out the stethoscope and began listening to his heart beat, it was normal. She checked his eyes, which looked fine, and his pulse was good too.

"So who am I talking to now?" Jean asked as she pulled off the stethoscope.

"You're talking to us now. To Schizoid? Remember?" He asked with a slight laugh.

Jean smiled ever so slightly as if to humor him. "Okay... Who is talking to me right now?" She asked kindly.

"Lucas. Lucas is in charge now. Lucas is in control. Myself. Lucas." He said as he nodded a bit, which made it hard for her to use the popsicle stick to look at his throat, so far he seemed pretty healthy physically.

"And Lucas is the human. Like you said before, right?" She asked as she stuck the thermometer in his ear to take his temperature.

"Yes. Lucas is human. Markus and Jack are mutants. Nothing wrong with humans. Nothing wrong with mutants. Best of friends." He said all rather quickly as if he were getting nervous.

She took the thermometer out of his ear, his temperature was normal as well. "So... Where is Lucas from?" She asked as she began to check his reflexes.

"Boston." He answered. "He grew up with his parents in Boston."

"Okay." She said as she pulled up a little monitor thing and hit a few buttons beneath it. "Have you ever taken an MRI before?" She asked.

"Yes." Schizoid answered as though he were nervous.

"Well I want to take an X-Ray and an MRI, is that okay?" Jean asked, it was obvious she was tiptoeing here, she didn't want to upset this guy, she felt he truly was mentally unstable.

"That's fine. Just so long as you don't make Jack do it." Schizoid answered.

"His turn will come, but for now I want Lucas to lay down here." She said with a nod as she patted the little slide out bed from the machine.

Schizoid nodded and laid down, taking off his shirt as he was instructed before hand, and trying to relax. The bed slid in slowly, and the lights came on, one by one. As though the machine were getting warmed up. It made funny, but sudden noises, and it was obvious that the young man did not enjoy the sudden noises. He jumped each time one happened.

"Stay still." Jean said as she took her place by a screen.

Schizoid didn't answer, just nodded, and tried to keep as still as he could. Finally the noises stopped, and he calmed down a bit and took deep breaths as he closed his eyes. He didn't like doctor's that was obvious, but why?

"You seem to be in perfectly fine physical condition." Jean said looking at the monitor. "Do you exercise on a regular basis?" She asked.

"Lucas used to spend a lot of time dancing and doing Capoeira." Schizoid answered.

"Capoeira?" Jean asked.

"Jamaican martial arts." Schizoid answered. "It's a mixture of dancing and self defense."

"Perhaps you can give us a demonstration some time." She suggested with a smile as she wrote down some notes.

"So we're in good health?" Schizoid answered as the bed slid back out from the machine and the machine shut down.

"Okay." Jean said as Schizoid stood up and put his shirt back on. "Next?"

"What? What do you mean? What does she mean? What next?" He asked as though talking to himself and to her at the same time.

"I mean... well... Can you switch now?" Jean asked.

"Oh sure." Schizoid said as he rotated his neck a bit as if to stretch it out. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes as his hair began to change from the roots downward from its black color to a natural red color. It looked unnatural when contrasted with his dark skin. His eyes opened to reveal large green saucer's replacing the blue eyes he had a moment ago.

"So who am I talking to now?" Jean asked getting her tools back from the table where she had laid them.

"Markus." He said as he sat back down on the table.

Jean took the stethoscope and put it to his heart. She was obviously having a bit of trouble. "Can you take off your sweat shirt?" She asked.

He did it and set it next to him, as he did so however she realized something she hadn't before, there was a scar on his left arm. It ran all the way from his shoulder down to his wrist.

"Was that there before?" She asked. "I didn't see it when you took of the straight jacket and put on the sweatshirt."

"What?" Schizoid asked looking down to his arm. His own eyes widened a bit. "No. Lucas doesn't have that. That's Markus'." He answered. "He got it a year ago."

She took down a few notes before she put the stethoscope to his heart again. She turned her head a little as if trying to listen hard.

"So... Markus. You were a mutant?" Jean asked taking off the stethoscope.

"Aye." He said with a nod. "Still am."

"Right..." Jean said looking into his eyes with her pen light. "What were your powers?" She asked. She was slightly curious. If this boy had his friend's abilities it would at least give him more credit to the story that they were still alive in his body.

"Markus could become invulnerable." He answered with a slight smile.

"How?" Jean asked stepping back and taking some notes.

"I could active a shield or something that coated my skin for about ten minutes. It took some concentration, but I could do it every once in a while." He answered. "Why lass?"

"Lass?" Jean asked raising a brow from behind her glasses.

"Sorry. Scottish vocab. Markus is from Alba." Schizoid responded as he looked around a bit.

"So..." Jean said as she tried to take his pulse. Something was wrong. She looked up at him. "You have no pulse."

"Well I did die Lass." He answered.

"Well... yes... but your body is also buried by now. This body needs a pulse in order to live... unless..." She paused as she reached into a drawer and pulled out a needle.

"What are you doing?" Schizoid asked raising a brow and moving away ever so slightly.

"Just sit still." She said reaching forward to stretch out his arm. She placed the needle against it and went to inject it, but it bent, breaking as she pushed it against his skin.

"What the?" Schizoid asked looking at it. "Did we do that? How did we do that?"

"Your 'shield' apparently." Jean answered. "Change back to Lucas."

He did so and looked a bit nervous as she went back to the drawer. His eyes were blue once more, and his hair was black, but his face wasn't bearing a happy expression right now. "Lucas doesn't want a shot." He said moving away.

"It won't hurt." She insisted moving forward. She took his arm and injected the needle without a problem, drawing some blood as she did so. "There." She said.

He immediately shifted back to Markus as the needle was pulled out, his hair becoming red and his eyes becoming green again. He gave a laugh. "Lucas doesn't like you. Liar." He said as he stood up from having been sitting on the table.

"Mind if we take an X-Ray?" Jean asked patting the tray.

Schizoid loaded himself onto the bed as he had done before and it slid into the machine. The lights came on but he was more calm about himself this time.

"So. Markus. You're from Scotland?" She asked.

"Aye. Grew up there with me da' and ma and brother." He answered.

"How old is Markus?" She asked.

"Markus is... what now... would have been twenty five we think, depending on how long we were locked away." Schizoid said before the machine took what it needed to.

The machine began to shut off as Jean continued. "Did you go to college?"

"Aye." Markus answered as the bed slid out from the machine. "Graduated from Oxford."

"What did you go there for?" She asked as he got up and stretched a bit, she was still looking at her monitor.

"Engineering. Like Lucas said before." Schizoid answered.

"Hm..." Jean said as she glared intently at the monitor before her.

"Something wrong?" Schizoid asked.

"Something happened with your X-Rays. I think no bones, just... an... outer shell." She said looking at the screen. "Anyway. I think it's time we went to the last of you." Jean said as she came back over to the examination table.

Schizoid walked over, and as he did so his hair began to change from the red color that it had been to a blond color, gold like straw, and tied in the dread locks. His green eyes turned dark and became brown keeping only a speckle of green within them. As he sat down though sparks could be heard jumping to him. He sat on the table and a bolt came from the light above him, they flickered all around in the basement, and even in the upper levels, before returning to normal.

"What was that?" Jean asked looking to him.

"Jack. Jack is in control now. Jack absorbs electricity. Uses it for energy, but can only hold so much." Schizoid answered as if in a half puzzle.

Jean sighed and began the third, and final, examination on Schizoid as she pulled out her stethoscope and moved forward.

**Upstairs**

"I still don't know Professor." Scott said shaking his head a little bit. He, Ororo, and Professor Xavier were sitting in Xavier's office debating a little. "Is it really safe to have him room with the students?"

"I assure you that Schizoid is perfectly safe. He is as safe as you and I." The professor nodded. Just as he finished his sentence the lights began to flicker on and off as if there was some sort of a power shortage. Suddenly they came back on and began working find again.

"What was that?" Ororo asked looking to the professor.

"_Jean?"_ The professor asked, telepathically communicating with Jean who was in the basement examining Schizoid at the moment.

"_Sorry professor. That was Schizoid." _She answered.

"_I Thought so."_ The professor responded before talking aloud to Ororo and Scott once more. "That was Schizoid." He answered Ororo's question. "Don't worry. It's under control."

"See?" Scott said standing up. "We don't even know what his powers are."

"That is what I hope to learn after Jean's examination session." The professor answered.

"What then?" Ororo asked.

"Then we'll have a better idea of what it is we're dealing with here." The professor answered.

"And what will he do in the meantime while we review Jean's results?" Scott asked.

"Perhaps he can make friends with some of the other students. Or perhaps you'd like to talk to him and explain your opinions." The professor suggested.

Scott rolled his eyes behind his glasses.

"Why don't I show him the danger room?" Ororo asked.

"He's too young for the danger room." Scott remarked. "He's what, sixteen, seventeen? He shouldn't be in the danger room."

"What do you suggest Scott?" The professor asked. "Perhaps he'd like to watch a movie in the living room with the other students."

"I don't know..." Scott said shaking his head.

"What do you have against him Scott?" The professor asked.

"He's insane! He's clearly unstable." Scott said, as though trying to convince the professor.

"I don't believe he is insane Scott. He's different. That's all. He's been through a lot, and I would appreciate it if we could all try to make him feel welcome and at home here. He's lost what family he has and he doesn't even know it. Lord only knows what happened to the other two's parents and families after the accident. Perhaps we should try to track them down." The professor said as if finishing the argument. "Please. I want all of us, even the students, to try our best to make this young man feel welcome here."

"Fine." Scott said.

"We'll keep an eye on him." Ororo said. "We can make him feel welcome and make sure he doesn't try to harm any of the students."

"Or himself." Scott added.

"Or himself." Ororo nodded. "I'm sure it will all work out."

"Good." The professor said with a nod. "Then it's decided."

"Wait." Scott said holding up a hand. "What's decided?"

**Medical Lab**

"Your pulse and breathing are faster than they were a minute ago. You're temperature is also three degrees higher." Jean said as she jotted down a few notes.

"Jack is more... well... Jack is more hyperactive. Jack is very hyperactive." Schizoid said as he shook his head. The blond dread locks looked a little odd when contrasted with his Jamaican skin, but after all he was an odd character to begin with. "So... What next?"

"I'm going to take a blood sample." Jean said getting a clean needle out of the drawer.

"Another one?" Jack asked, not really seeming nervous, but curious.

"Yes. Now hold still." She said as she went to his other arm, and took the blood from there. "What's this mark on your back here?" She asked. "I haven't seen it there before, and the scar on your arm is gone."

"Oh. That's a birthmark. It's in the shape of an T right?" Schizoid asked as he tried to look at his own back.

"Yeah..." Jean answered as she jotted down more notes.

"Then it's JT's. Had it since he was born he did." Schizoid answered. "Yes he did. He doesn't have a scar like Markus does though. No." He said with a shake of his head.

Jean placed the needle and the vial of blood she had drawn on the counter a bit away from where she and Schizoid were. "So... do you... do any of you... have a history of medical illness? Chronic diseases, anything like that?"

"No." Schizoid answered right away, and then looked away. "Well... Lucas did. No need to worry now though. We're healthy right?"

"What was it?" Jean asked.

"Lucas doesn't want us to say. He doesn't want to talk about it. It doesn't matter now." Schizoid said hopping down from the table. He seemed to guess that the MRI machine was coming next.

Jean didn't seem to like the fact that he wouldn't answer the question, but she went over to the monitor of the machine anyway as Schizoid loaded himself onto the bed for the third, and hopefully final time.

The bed slid in as the machine started up, tiny bolts of electricity jumped from it to Schizoid for a second, but they soon ceased and the machine began working normally once more. The lights were a bit blinding, and this being the third time that body had been in there the eyes hurt a little bit, so he closed them.

"Okay. We're done." Jean said as the machine shut down and the bed slid out. "Put your shirt back on and we'll go see the professor."

Schizoid went and put the sweatshirt back on, as he did so Jean hit a few buttons on the monitor and then jotted down a few more notes. She took off the white coat, and the glasses, and cleaned up a little, putting her utensils away and the vials of blood next to each other with proper labels on them. Schizoid waited on a near by table.

"Ready? Are we ready? Yes, we're ready. Is she ready? Are you ready?" He asked looking over to Jean.

"Let's go." She said gesturing towards the door as it opened. She and Schizoid left the medical wing and were back in that rather large metallic hallway once more. They arrived at the elevator and got inside, taking it upstairs.

"Where are we going?" Schizoid asked.

"Well, Ororo, the Professor, Scott, and I are going to have a little talk. I think the professor might have something for you to do, but he might not. I don't know yet." She answered.

"Oh.." Schizoid answered with a nod as the elevator door opened to let them out on the ground floor.

They exited and turned right, heading down the hall. Schizoid's wide, now brown, eyes scanned the scenes before him. Children, youth his age-ish, were running around inside, playing, talking, hanging out. Something that he obviously had not done in a long time.

"Are there sports here? Do you have any sports? JT likes all sports, and Markus likes rugby. Lucas isn't too into sports, but he likes to watch sometimes. Are there sports here?" Schizoid asked, seeming to get excited about the subject.

"I'm sure that you could convince some students to play a game or two once the weather clears." She said looking to the large glass windows as they passed the front door. It was still raining and miserable outside. The day was getting later though, and thus darker. The inside was beginning to seem more and more like a haven.

They reached Xavier's office and Schizoid waited outside the door as Jean knocked and stepped inside. She motioned for him to wait there as she closed the door behind her. Schizoid sat down against the wall next to the door, watching the activity in the hallway. Which was very little activity at all really. All that happened was every now and again someone would come up or down the stairs and turn to go down the other side of the hall. This must've been the classroom area, no classes on Saturday.

He was almost startled as a voice behind him spoke up. "Hey there."

His head turned rather quickly, his blond dread locks whipping around as he did so. He didn't really speak, but waited for them to say something else.

"My name's Kitty. Remember?" The girl was young, though probably only a year or two younger than Lucas.

"Yes. Yes we remember." Schizoid answered. "Our name's Schizoid."

Kitty nodded with a slight smile and a small laugh. "Yes. I remember." She said squatting down so as to look at him face to face while they talked. "You can turn your hair blonde too?" She asked. She had already seen him turn it red.

"JT's hair is blonde. Jack's. His hair is blonde. Markus has red hair, yes, and Lucas has black hair, naturally, after all it is his body." He answered, not really making much sense.

'So what are you doing just sitting here in the hallway? Talking to yourself?" She asked, the last part was meant to be a joke, though a bad one at that.

"We always talk to each other, but no. We are waiting." He said pointing to the door next to and behind him.

"For the professor?" Kitty asked.

"And Scott, and Ororo, and Jean. They are talking. Lucas thinks they are trying to find something for us to do while they go over Jean's results so we won't get in trouble." Schizoid answered.

"Is that your real name, Lucas?" She asked, noting that he had said it.

"No. Not Lucas. Jack is in control now. Jack." Schizoid answered.

"So Jack is your real name?" Kitty asked.

"No. Not really. Not exactly. OUR name is Schizoid." He said putting emphasis on the 'our' as he pointed to himself.

"You're not making any sense." Kitty said. "People are going to think you're crazy." She giggled.

"Perhaps we are." Schizoid said turning to her as his eyes got wider, a perfectly crazed look in them.

Kitty didn't move. "You're not crazy." She argued. "If you were the professor wouldn't have brought you here."

"Perhaps you're right." Schizoid answered. "We're not even sure of what's going on. We're not sure of what we are. How can we be?" He asked as he looked towards the door.

Kitty sat down next to him, she wasn't sure what to think. With that last bit a part of her felt sorry for this guy, but on the other hand, she had to admit, he did seem crazy.

The door opened and the Professor exited, with Jean following, Scott, and then Ororo. "Ah Kitty." The professor said turning. "Perfect. I was wondering if I could ask a favor."

"Sure." Kitty said with a smile.

"Would you mind showing Schizoid here around a little?" The professor asked.

"We've been shown around." Schizoid spoke up. "The Rogue. She showed us. You showed us downstairs."

"Then perhaps you'd like to watch a movie, or play a game of pool?" The professor asked.

"Are you hungry?" Kitty asked.

"Food..." Schizoid said looking down at his stomach. "We can be. Jack doesn't eat, doesn't need to, but the stomach is empty. Lucas and Markus could use some." He said as his hair turned from the blonde that it had been to the red that they had seen before and his eyes turned from brown to green as he stood up.

"Then we'll get ya something to eat." Kitty said with a smile. "Come on."

The professor smiled and nodded his thank you to Kitty as he, Scott, and Ororo followed Jean to the elevator so as to go downstairs.

Kitty led the way, and Schizoid followed as they entered the kitchen. No one was in here this time.

"What happened to your friends?" Schizoid asked as Kitty went over to the fridge.

"They're playing a board game. I decided to walk around a little." Kitty answered.

"Ah." Schizoid said with a nod.

"What do you want to eat?" Kitty asked.

"Got any spuds in there?" Schizoid asked.

"What?" Kitty asked a little confused.

"Taters. Potatoes." Schizoid said again.

"Oh. Never heard 'em called spuds before." Kitty said as she went back into the fridge, finding some left over mashed potatoes.

"It's how Markus says it.." Schizoid answered. "Jack calls them taters, Lucas just calls them potatoes."

"Potato, potahto." Kitty said with a smile as she moved some into a bowl and began heating them up.

"Something like that." Schizoid said as he sat down.

**Downstairs**

"So what's your opinion?" The professor asked as he, Scott, Ororo, and Jean entered the medical room. "Is our newest student insane?"

Jean sighed as she picked up her notes and set up one of the machines to show her results. "In my professional opinion? No." She said. "Look at these." She turned on the one machine, showing the results of the X-Rays. It was a normal skeleton, Schizoid's height.

"What's so weird about this?" Ororo asked.

"Absolutely nothing." Jean said with a smile. "It's a normal skeletal structure. Nothing broken, nothing inside, nothing out of the ordinary at all." She said with a nod as she pushed a button and the next X-Ray came up. This one was different though, it just showed the outline of his body, as if the skin had been bone.

"What the?" Scott asked.

"Markus was a mutant who's mind could project a temporary telekinetic shield around his body in order to protect himself." Jean answered.

"Then how was he was killed?" The professor asked.

"The shield was temporary and he had to concentrate to activate it. If he had been killed in an accident he wouldn't have been able to protect himself." Jean answered. "How ever, this shield seems to be constant. So long as Schizoid's hair is red."

"What are you saying?" Scott asked.

"Just wait." Jean said switching the screens again, this time it was a normal skeleton with one exception. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny narrow splinter-looking bones shooting out towards the skin.

"What are those?" Ororo asked.

"Hollow tunnel-like bones. Jack was a mutant that had the ability to channel electricity. His body worked as a battery, absorbing and running on electricity, with the possibility of being able to 'regurgitate' the electricity through the nodes. I'd have to examine one to be sure, but I believe that is how Jack used to absorb electricity, through nodes placed on the skin that would then transfer that electricity to the blood stream after transforming it into energy his body could use as it traveled through these tubes." Jean answered.

"But all of these are the same height. They're all Schizoid?" Ororo asked.

"The first is of Schizoid with black hair. The second is Schizoid with red hair, and this is Schizoid with blonde hair." Jean answered. "I believe that Schizoid is three different people, sharing the same body. Lucas is a human, but can give control of his body to whoever he wants, when he does this however, his body adapts to the new 'life force' activating the X-Gene and transforming his body on the inside, and the hair and eyes, to the new person." Jean answered.

"How is that possible?" Scott asked.

"That I don't know." Jean answered. "It's either that, or Lucas somehow can alter his own molecular structure to fit with his Multiple Personality Disorder."

"Which is it?" Ororo asked.

"I believe that it's the first." Jean answered. "But in all honesty? No one can really say for sure."

**End of Chapter 3**

**Author's Notes:** Review!


	4. Roommate

**Author's Note:** Less reviews this time, but I suppose that's okay. Please keep reviewing! I cannot express in words how encouraging and important it is to the author to hear someone's opinion on his work whether that opinion be good or bad. Most of you are author's so you know the feeling. Sorry that this update took so long, I've been busy lately. Now to respond to your reviews!

**AquaRias:** Sorry you had to wait so long, hopefully you'll love this chapter as much as you've loved the rest. Thanks for the review and please keep reviewing!

**EvilEyeKat:** Thank you so much for being so faithful in your reading and reviewing. I'm glad that you're so curious to find things out, this chapter should reveal some information, but not too much. Hopefully it'll satisfy your curiosity for a while.

**Sal:** At this moment I only own Schizoid, he's the only OC in the fic so far, but we'll see as it goes along.

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**Chapter 4: Roommate **

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Scott and the Professor came back up from the Medical bay, coming out of the elevator in the hall as the doors opened for them. Jean was still down in the medical bay going over the tests and their results trying to come up with a decision, and Storm had decided to stay downstairs doing some work in another area of the basement. Thus leaving Scott and the Professor alone to discuss a few things.

"Are you sure?" Scott asked as he stepped out of the elevator.

"Yes Scott. I believe that he is perfectly sane and perfectly capable of adapting to life here at the institute, and I would like for them to room together, it could be beneficial to both of them." The professor answered.

"It's your decision." Scott said with a nod, sounding as though he still didn't agree with it, but understood that his opinion did not matter in this case, it was up to the professor.

"Come. Let us go speak with Edward. We should let him know." The professor said with a nod as the two of them started down the hall in the opposite direction of the kitchen.

**The Kitchen**

Schizoid sat in the kitchen, his hair was still red now, it had been blonde, but had switched to red when he and Kitty came to the kitchen. He was seated at the table, as Kitty worked to cook something. The discussion had died a bit, as Kitty was trying to search her mind for something to talk about.

"So where are you from?" Kitty asked.

"Which one of us?" Schizoid asked. "We're from different places." He said standing up a bit. "Do you want a drink?"

"Hm?" Kitty asked looking over her shoulder as she tried to cook the mashed potatoes. "Sure. I'll take a soda."

Schizoid opened the fridge to find that it went further back then it looked like it did from the outside, he finally found the cans of coke on the bottom shelf on the left. He reached in and grabbed two, placing Kitty's on the counter, while he opened his and got out two glasses and some ice. He placed ice in the glasses and then poured some soda, and handed Kitty her's.

"Thank you." Kitty said with a smile as she took the soda. "But you never answered the question." She pointed out.

"What question? Did we ask a question? Did you? Did we answer it? No? What question?" Schizoid asked before taking a sip of his soda.

Kitty laughed a bit. "You're just trying to avoid it. Where are you from?"

"Where is who from?" Schizoid asked with a curious look in his eye.

"Where is Lucas from?" Kitty asked, specifying the question so that he would answer it. She was quick at trying to get him to open up a bit, and perhaps a little naive as to his situation.

"Lucas is from Boston. His dad worked on a fisherman's boat and lived on the edge of the city." Schizoid answered with a smile before sitting back down.

"And Markus?" Kitty asked with a smile as she drank some of her own soda.

"Markus was born in Scotland." Schizoid answered. "Went to Oxford, came here after he graduated cause he got a job in Atlanta."

"I see." Kitty said as she gave the mashed potatoes a stir. She went over to the fridge and took some left over meat loaf, putting it in the steamer and then in the microwave. "So what about JT?"

"Jack is from New Jersey. Cape May to be exact." Schizoid answered.

"So you really are three people?" Kitty asked.

"We think so." Schizoid answered.

"How did you all get into one body?" Kitty asked. "Was it one of your mutations?"

"No." Schizoid answered. "We don't know how it happened. Or why. Neither Markus or JT has a mutation that could do that." He said with a nod as he took another drink of soda, watching as she started to heat up the meat and then went back to stirring the potatoes.

"What about Lucas?" Kitty asked, just assuming that all three of them were mutant.

"Lucas is human." Schizoid answered. "So we're human and mutant, not that it matters, best of friends." He added rather quickly.

"Lucas is human." Schizoid repeated. "He didn't have any mutation by the age of seventeen, and doctor's didn't find anything."

"Doctors?" Kitty asked as she turned off the stove and got a pair of plates out of the cabinets.

"Lucas has a lot of history with doctors." Schizoid said shaking his head as he refilled his glass of coke.

"What kind of history?" Kitty asked curiously as she scooped out a serving of the potatoes onto the plate and the microwave timer went off.

"He doesn't want us to tell you." Schizoid said standing up. "Need help?" Schizoid asked.

"No. I got it." She said with a smile as she took the meat out of the microwave and put a piece of the meatloaf on each plate next to the potatoes. She took the two plates and put them across from each other on the table before going back and getting her glass of coke and sitting down.

Schizoid sat back down, and paused as he was about to eat. "Do you... Do you pray before you eat?"

Kitty giggled. "My family is Jewish, so I pray after I eat when I'm back home, but you can feel free if you want to."

Schizoid smiled. "We're not sure. It's never come up before..." He paused. "Lucas is Baptist, but Markus is catholic, and JT is Jewish as well."

"Guess you guys don't talk about religion much, huh?" Kitty asked.

"Well we did, but that was all just discussion, we never expected the other to practice the other's... practices." Schizoid said as though he was searching for the right words. "We'll figure it out later. Thank you for the food." He said looking at Kitty.

"You're welcome." Kitty said as they began to eat. She wasn't exactly sure of what to think of this guy, that was obvious by the look on her face. Was he just making it all up, or was he really crazy, or was he telling the truth? She knew that he was basically a joke to her other friends, and those that had met him either didn't know what to think of him, or thought he was crazy. She didn't think he was a joke, she felt kind of bad for him actually, not that he was a sad case, she just could only think of the difficulties his new arrangement must bring. "So where did you three meet?" Kitty asked ever so curiously. If she couldn't solve the puzzle that was this young guy then the least she could do was get a few more pieces.

"A hospital down in Atlanta." Schizoid answered. "We all had different reasons for being there, but we were roommates. We spent a lot of time together, talking and such. Then when Markus and Jack were released we kept in touch. We decided to get together and have some fun one last time. That was when the accident happened."

"Okay." Kitty said holding up a few hands. "Hold up. Why were you all at the hospital? Why wasn't Lucas released? What did you mean 'one last time'?"

Schizoid laughed. "Answer to the first: None of your business. No offense. The second: Because the doctor's didn't want him to be. The third: We mean one last time because Markus was going back home to Scotland."

Kitty smirked a bit, it was his business whether or not he wanted to answer all of her questions, but she wished that he would, now she was really curious. "Okay, so what accident?"

"The three of us were riding in a jeep that Markus was driving." Schizoid explained. "Jack was in the passenger seat, and Lucas was in the back. We were headed to the beach and the board walk, going to just have a good time hanging out and soaking up sun. Truth be told we were going a little fast. Anyway, a truck pulled out. Boom. Lucas gets to see Markus get impaled to the seat by glass, and JT didn't have his seatbelt on, got tossed about, and Lucas got trapped in the back. Everything goes black. He wakes up to being rescued and then blacks out again. Next thing we know Lucas is lying in a hospital bed again and JT and I can both see and hear everything that he can, and he can hear our thoughts." Schizoid took a breath and a drink of his soda. "Then later we found out we can do this." He said as his hair shifted from the red to the black color it usually was, and his hauntingly beautiful green eyes to a dazzling blue color. This was Schizoid as Kitty had originally met him.

"So you can change who has control?" Kitty asked, seeming to get it pretty quickly.

"We think so. Other's think we're just crazy." Schizoid said. "Scott thinks we're crazy. We know he doesn't like us, we're not stupid. The professor thinks we're not, he's been in our mind."

"So he brought you here? Where were you before here? An asylum? You were wearing a straight jacket before." Kitty asked, she was more curious then ever now and could really care less about her food.

Schizoid had been eating his food when he could, and she'd caught him with a fork-full of 'spuds' in his mouth. He chewed, swallowed, and then answered. "Yeah." He said before taking a drink of his soda. "Lucas' parents thought their son had become another dangerous, powerful, and insane mutant. Locked him up."

"That's horrible." Kitty said shaking her head.

"Can't really blame them. After all. We're still not even sure that they were wrong." Schizoid said with a shrug. "Haven't seen any of our parents in... months. Years for Markus."

"That's sad." Kitty said with a shake of her head. "My family still talks to me, and I go home on the holidays. It's a little different, but it's still nice."

"That's nice." Schizoid said as he finished the potatoes on his plate. "Thanks again for the food." Schizoid said with a nod as he started on the meatloaf.

"No trouble." She said with a smile.

**Upstairs**

"So he's three people, in one body?" A young man asked looking at the professor.

The scene had changed much from the hall of the Xavier Mansion, they were in the dormitories now, inside one of the double rooms. It had one bed on one side of the room, and another on the other. One bathroom for the two, a pair of chairs and desks, and two closets. It was quite obviously the young man's room and it had things scattered hither, yither, and yon. A stereo, a keyboard, a fiddle, a tin-whistle, a few books, notebooks, sketch books. Beautiful paintings hung on the wall, most of landscapes, one a family of mother, father, daughter, and son, the son being the young man the professor was speaking to.

Another painting hung just above a desk, obviously the desk the young man had been using. It was a portrait of a young woman, very beautiful in face, with long black hair and a rather cute smile on her face that seemed to be mock-annoyed. It was almost like a picture, but there it hung, the painting in its frame.

"Yes." The professor answered. "Will that be a problem?"

"That's a lot of people. I don't like people all that much." The young man answered sitting down.

"I realize that, but there are no other rooms available at the moment, and I do believe that having him room with someone will help him adapt to life here at the institute." The professor said with a small nod.

"Welcome to Mutant High." The young man answered. "As it were."

"Yes. I want you to make him feel welcome. I want you to help him." The professor smiled.

"We'll see." The young man said, looking to Scott who was looking at one of the paintings.

"Where'd you get these?" Scott asked with a tone of curiosity in his voice.

"I didn't. I made them." The young man answered as he walked over to Scott. "You like this one?" He asked pointing to the painting of a small pond scene with a couple on a picnic, the male sitting with the female resting against him, a book in his hand, reading aloud to her.

"I didn't know you could paint." Scott answered.

"No reason why you should have." The young man responded. "This place doesn't have much of an art class. We forget the more refined things in life in order to teach the bare bones of what is necessary."

The professor smiled. "So will you do it? Will you be willing to room with him?" He asked hopefully.

"You didn't make it sound like I had much of a choice." The young man answered, pointing out the obvious. "I suppose giving it a try couldn't hurt. Though if he gets in the way he won't be seeing much of me."

"Thank you." The professor said with a nod.

"Can you paint a portrait of anybody?" Scott asked.

"Basically. If you give me a picture, or if I've seen them before I can usually get a good painting of them done. Why? You got a request?" The young man asked.

"You think you could paint a picture of Jean and I?" Scott asked.

"Sure." The young man answered.

"Do you need..." Scott wasn't sure if he needed him and Jean to come in and model or something, or pose, or whatever, but the young man cut him off.

"Don't worry about it." He said with a nod.

"Thanks." Scott said with a nod.

The professor laughed and the two, Scott and the Professor, left. "See Scott? I think you misjudged the boy."

"Edward maybe, but I still don't know about Schizoid." Cyclops answered. "I'm not sure he's safe professor."

"What will it take to assure you Scott?" The professor asked.

"For him to stop acting crazy." Scott answered.

"That's hardly fair." The professor argued. "That would be like Schizoid saying he would only like you if you didn't wear red glasses." The professor said with a gleam in his eye. It was a rather good comparison, but it was a rather careful thing to bring up.

"It's not the same Professor." Scott argued as they went down the hall.

"I believe it is." The professor said, as though he were ending the debate.

**The Kitchen**

The scene had only changed a little. The meal was now over, and Schizoid was at the sink rinsing off the plates and such and putting them in the dishwasher to be washed. Kitty sat at the table waiting, because Schizoid wouldn't let her help any.

"So what are your powers?" Kitty asked.

"Our powers.." Schizoid said as though he were thinking about it. "Lucas is human. Markus has invulnerable skin, and JT is a battery."

"Wait." Kitty said shaking her head. "If Markus is invulnerable how did he die? And what do you mean JT is a battery?" She asked.

"It used to be optional. He had to concentrate. Now it's just automatic, whenever our hair is red and Markus is in control." He nodded. "And JT absorbs electricity. He uses it for food almost. That's why he doesn't eat." Schizoid explained with a nod as he shut the dishwasher.

As he shut it someone else came into the kitchen, but then started to leave before being joined by someone else. Schizoid turned around to see Rogue, with Bobby close behind her.

"Hey." Bobby said giving a nod and a wave. "We were gonna watch a movie, either of you care to join us?"

Kitty looked to Schizoid. "You want to watch a movie?"

Schizoid looked to Rogue, who seemed to get a little nervous before saying something along the lines of being sure that Schizoid had something better to do.

"What movie?" Schizoid asked.

"Lord of the Rings. The Fellowship of the Ring." Bobby said with a smile.

"They made a movie of that?" Schizoid asked curiously.

"Yeah. Where have you been man?" Bobby asked with a friendly laugh. "Come on." He said to Schizoid, waving him over. "Kitty?"

"Sure why not." Kitty said with a smile as she got up from the table. "You coming Schizoid?" She asked with a sweet smile. She hoped beyond hope that if this guy was crazy, he wasn't obsessive or perverted. She didn't want to suffer for having been nice to him.

"Sure." Schizoid said with a nod.

The four left the kitchen and headed to the living room, where they were met by those two friends of Kitty's that Schizoid had met before, and another guy that Schizoid had never met before.

"Everyone. This is Schizoid. He's new." Bobby said, giving him an introduction. "Schizoid, this is everyone." He said with a gesture.

Bobby sat down on the far end of the couch, with Rogue sitting next to him, Schizoid sitting next to her, and Kitty sitting next to Schizoid. The couch was large so they weren't squished together, but they were still sitting close. Too close for Rogue's comfort. She scooted closer to Bobby, who didn't seem to have an objection, but she was careful not to touch either him or Schizoid at all. It was clear she was uncomfortable so Schizoid scooted closer to Kitty, who didn't seem to have any objections.

The movie started, Schizoid gave a smile to Rogue but she didn't move her face away from looking at the screen as Galadriel's voice came on. The movie was interesting for sure.

**Three Hours Later**

"Is he okay?" Bobby asked looking over Rogue to Schizoid, who's eyes were closed as his head rested against the back of the couch, but he was shaking a little.

Rogue stood up and took a step back.

"I think he fell asleep." Kitty said giving his arm a nudge.

Schizoid suddenly sprang upwards in his seat, his shoulder length dread locks coming up and slapping him in the face as he did so. "What did we miss?" He asked quickly.

Laughter spread throughout everyone but Rogue who was startled when he suddenly awoke.

"Sorry." He said rubbing the back of his head a bit.

"That's okay." Bobby said standing up. "It is a long movie."

Schizoid and Kitty stood up, as everyone else was now. Schizoid shook his head a bit as though he were trying to shake off the sleepiness of the nap he had just taken.

"Well. I'm off." Bobby said with a smile. "It was nice to meet you." He said looking to Schizoid.

"You too." Schizoid said with a nod. Bobby and that other guy left, Rogue left after them, and Kitty and her two friends began to leave as well. Though Kitty lingered behind just a little bit in order to say goodbye.

"See you tomorrow." Kitty said with a slight smile to Schizoid as she left.

"See ya." Schizoid said with a nod as she and her friends left, leaving only Schizoid there in the living room now. "Where do we sleep?" Schizoid asked as if he was talking to himself. "Do we need to sleep? Jack doesn't." His hair shifted to blonde and his blue eyes changed to brown as a smile crept onto his face. Electric bolts jumped from the television to his hand as he held it out, lasting only a few seconds and then stopping as he sat down on the couch and began to flip through the channels.

"Ah. There you are." The professor's voice said several minutes later as he and Scott came into the living room where Schizoid was sitting and watching TV. "I wanted to show you to your room."

"We have a room?" Schizoid asked as he turned off the television.

"Yes. You'll be rooming with a young man named Eddy. Edward Griffith." The professor answered. "He's a young man about Lucas' age." The professor added. "And he's been here a while so he can show you the ropes."

"Will he be okay?" Schizoid asked.

"What do you mean?" The professor asked raising a brow.

"Well... We mean... We're kind of... different. Will he be okay with that?" Schizoid asked. He didn't want to disrupt anyone, and more than that, he didn't want to make any enemies his first night here. Already he had made at least one person uncomfortable.

"Don't worry." The professor said with a slight smile. "He's different as well."

"What do you mean?" Schizoid asked curiously.

"Like yourself he doesn't conform to the social standards that most people consider... normal." The professor explained. "You'll have to judge for yourself."

"So where do we go?" Schizoid asked.

"You'll follow Scott. He'll show you to your room. Do you have any clothes or belongings? I didn't see any when they dropped you off." The professor asked nicely.

"No." Schizoid answered. "Just the jacket down stairs. And these pants. Heck, even this sweatshirt is your's."

The professor laughed a little. "I'll see what we can do about getting you some clothes." The professor said with a nod. "Perhaps one of us can take you to get some new clothes." He said with a nod.

"Sounds good." Schizoid said as he stood up and brushed himself off a bit.

"Good." The professor said with a smile. "Scott can show you to your room now."

"Aye." Schizoid said as he began to follow Scott who had already begun to turn towards the door.

"This way." Scott said gesturing towards the stairs.

They took the stairs and hung a right at the top of them, walking down the hallway a bit. It was rather symmetric to be honest. There was a pair of doors, one on either side, every ten or so feet down the hallway. Except for one. There was no door on the right, but there was a door on the left. Scott walked up to the space in the wall where the door would normally be and knocked, as if there was a door there.

"Can you see something we can't?" Schizoid asked.

"No, but I know something you don't." Scott answered as a door appeared where he had just knocked, as though it had always been there, even though it wasn't just a few seconds ago.

"Come in." A voice said from the other side of the door. Apparently there really was a room here.

Scott opened the door and waved Schizoid in. The room was lit by a light on the ceiling, and the walls were a tan color. There were two closets as they came in to their left, and to their right there was a door that led into a small bathroom. The room itself was rectangular in shape, longer than it was wide. In the back there was a large window that led out to a balcony. There were two desks that were up against the left wall and two beds with a night-stand in between on the right wall. A chest of drawers at the foot of each bed. Paintings hung on the wall of the most beautiful kind, evidently his roommate was either a collector or an artist. There was a bookcase against the back wall that was on the left side of the beds, only half of it was filled.

A young man about Lucas' age stood in the room with a gleam in his hazel green-brown eyes. He wore a simple button down collar shirt that was meant to be untucked. A black undershirt was beneath it and a pair of black slacks clad his legs while his feet had a pair of black dress shoes on. He looked dressed up for someone his age. He was broad in the shoulders, but not very muscular.

"Welcome." The young man said with a nod. "To the Sanctuary."

"Thanks..." Schizoid said coming in. "We think..."

"I'll let you two get to know each other." Scott said. "I'll see you both in the morning. Breakfast starts at seven." He said with a nod as he left the two of them to get to know each other, discuss some things, and figure some things out.

"Are you a mutant?" Schizoid asked as he came in.

"No. I'm a human. Perfectly normal. In fact, I don't even know why I'm here. I think I was kidnaped." The young man answered, obviously being sarcastic.

Schizoid shrugged. "Sorry. Just trying to make conversation."

The young man gave a laugh. "Name's Ed." He said with a nod as he sat down on one of the beds. "This bed's mine. That bed's your's." He said pointing to the bed closest to the balcony window.

"Nice to meet you. Our name's Schizoid." Schizoid said as he sat down.

"Never met a black man with blonde hair." Ed said looking up to him. "Dye job?"

"I guess that's part of our power. When we switch our hair and eyes change colors." Schizoid said with a nod. "Jack's hair is Blonde, but Lucas' is black, and Markus' is red."

"Right. The three. Like Xavier said." Ed said as he sat up a bit.

"What's your power?" Schizoid asked with a curious gleam in his brown eyes. He was starting to enjoy this conversation. He didn't know why, but he liked this guy. He obviously wasn't afraid to hurt feelings, he spoke what he thought, an admirable trait really.

"This." Ed said holding up his hand which held a very red long-stemmed rose.

"We don't... We don't get it." Schizoid said coming up a little closer so he could see better.

"Here." Ed said throwing the rose to him.

Schizoid went to catch it but the rose passed right through his hand and landed on the floor without a sound. He tried to pick it up, but his hand passed through it each time, before the rose disappeared. He looked back to Ed, but he was no longer there. He wasn't on the bed. In fact, he wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Suddenly the exit to the room disappeared as well, and Schizoid's own image was in a painting on the wall. He was starting to get a little freaked out. He was looking around himself constantly, muttering to himself, and then decided to make a break for the window.

He was stopped by Ed's hand as Ed suddenly appeared in front of him holding the rose. The door behind him appeared just as it had always been there, and the painting vanished from the wall.

"Illusions." Ed spoke up. "You see this rose, but you can't touch it, or smell it, or taste it, or hear it. Because it doesn't actually exist." Ed said with a slight nod. "My power is to basically tell your mind what it is you're seeing. If I don't want you to see me, you don't see me. If I want you to see me as something else..." Ed said as he slowly began to change. He shrunk from his six foot height to Schizoid's height, while his skin became dark and black and his eyes became brown as his hair became blonde. "Though my voice is still my own." He said as he suddenly appeared as himself again.

"Whoa." Schizoid said with a nod. "Nice."

"Glad you think so." Ed said as he headed back towards his bed.

"You don't?" Schizoid asked.

"They've caused me some trouble, but they come in handy for privacy." Ed said with a nod.

Schizoid nodded but ran out of things to really say at this point, so his eyes began to travel around the room a bit. Finally landing on the paintings. "These are really nice. Did you buy them or make them?"

"I made them." Ed answered. "I spend most of time drawing or painting, or even some sculpting." He added.

"Who's this?" He asked pointing to a portrait that hung above the one desk. It was of a beautiful young girl about their age, with pale white skin and dark brown hair. Her eyes shone as though they were gems, all captured in this beautiful work of art.

"Laura." Ed answered with a nod. "That's my love."

"You have a girlfriend?" Schizoid asked.

"Something like that." Ed answered.

**End of Chapter 4**

**Author's Note:** Please be polite and review! You can even flame it if you want to, but please review it! If you read it, I would really appreciate a review of it. I can't express in words how important it is to an author to hear other's opinions on his work.


	5. Lucas Story

**Author's Note:** Sorry that this chapter has taken so long, I blame school.

**Maid of the Mer**: Sorry again that this wasn't exactly soon, but here's the update that you asked for.

**CharmedPhoenix500**: I've kept writing, and I think I'll keep writing it until the story ends.

**momkiandboom244**: It's not over yet.

**Sal**: Sorry to make you wait my love.

**EvilEyeKat**: Yeah, I rather enjoyed writing that LOTR sequence myself. I was actually watching Fellowship of the Ring at the time if I recall, hence why it was the movie. Ah, hooza for originality eh?

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**Chapter 5: Lucas' Story**

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Ah, Sunday morning. A time for all sorts of things: Breakfast, Church, Football, Sleep, and all sorts of other activities. The sky had cleared since the previous night and it was only partially covered by clouds now. The rain had stopped but the ground itself was still wet rather than being dry enough to do anything on. All of which went un-noticed by Schizoid as he lay in his bed, sound asleep.

Edward, his roommate, on the other hand was already awake and moving. The light from the window illuminated him, without the light on. A canvas was set up on an tripod in the middle of the room, a tarp beneath it protecting the carpet. He sat in front of it mixing paints, preparing the right colors for his next portrait. He looked at those that hung on the wall, his gaze stopping extra long at the one of the young woman.

"What are you doing?" Schizoid asked as he sat up in bed. His black dread locks moving with him.

"Painting." Ed answered. "Scott asked me if I could make one of him and Jean."

"Is that what you do all day?" Schizoid asked as he sat up in bed.

"No." Ed answered with a slight smile.

"What else do you do?" Schizoid asked.

"Schoolwork mostly." Ed answered as he stood up and went to the closet for something.

"Schoolwork?" Schizoid asked as he moved the blanket off of him and started to get out of bed.

"Well this is after all a school." Ed gave a small laugh. "I guess I write sometimes too."

"Like stories?" Schizoid asked curiously.

"Like letters. And poetry." Ed said bringing another group of paints to the area in front of his canvas.

"Letters to who?" Schizoid asked.

"Well you're just full of questions aren't you?" Ed asked rhetorically.

"Shouldn't we be?" Schizoid asked with a mocking tone in his voice. "After all, who was ever harmed by a question."

"The cat." Ed answered.

"What?" Schizoid asked.

"Curiosity killed the cat. Remember?" Ed asked with a small laugh. "Oh, and by the way. The professor stopped by earlier. He said he wanted you to stop by the office once you were up and ready."

"Okay." Schizoid said with a nod before he went into the bathroom.

A while later a freshly showered Schizoid came out, his hair still wet. "We're going to need some new clothes." He commented.

"Here." Ed said walking over to a chest of drawers. "You can wear this for now." He tossed him a black hoody. "Once you go shopping you should be able to get some clothes of your own."

"Thanks." Schizoid said as he put it on and continued getting dressed.

"Are you going to come with us to see the professor?" Schizoid asked.

"No." Ed answered with a shake of his head. "Have fun."

"Do you ever leave this room?" Schizoid asked.

"Sure I do." Ed answered. "I have a few friends. I'm just very selective in who I let see me." He said with a smile.

"Markus thinks you're kinda weird." Schizoid said as he got ready to leave.

"Like I really care what someone trapped in someone else's body thinks about what is weird." Ed answered with a laugh.

"He does have a point Markus." Schizoid said, talking to himself again. "JT thinks you're cool. So does Lucas. Lucas likes the paintings. Anyway, we're gonna go see the professor. See ya." Schizoid said as he opened the door.

"Have fun." Ed said with a slight wave as Schizoid left.

He walked down the hall and headed back downstairs, glancing behind him only once to note that the door had disappeared once it had shut behind him. Ed sure did like his privacy, but he seemed cool enough. Two out of three approval rating. There didn't seem to be much activity going on in the mansion, though there were a few people up and about that he didn't recognize.

"Are we hungry?" He asked himself as he headed down the stairs. "We could always stop by the kitchen before we go to the office." He added. "Just for a second?" He asked. "Well no, Lucas isn't that hungry really, just a little nibble kind of appetite." He said as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "Fine. Office first."

He stood outside the office in no time, but the door was shut so he didn't feel it was polite to just barge in. He knocked first, and the professor said he could come in, though it sounded as though the professor was next to him rather then on the other side of the door. "Professor?" Schizoid asked as he came into the room.

"Ah yes. Schizoid. I wanted to ask you if you'd be willing to do something for me." The Professor said as he sat behind his desk. Jean and Scott both sat in chairs in front of the desk and all looked to Schizoid as he came in.

"What?" Schizoid asked.

"Well I was wondering if you'd be willing to meet with Jean once a week." The professor said with a slight motion for Schizoid to take a seat.

"What for?" Schizoid asked as he sat down. "To do more tests? Does Jack need more tests? Or Lucas? Or Markus?" He asked curiously.

"Actually I was wondering if you'd be willing to do something like a counseling session here once a week with her. It's natural for the students here to have some abnormal stresses in their lives so we try to match them up with a counselor to help them cope with the changes that are happening in their lives." The professor answered.

"We don't... know..." Schizoid said unsure of what to do. "Can we think about it?"

"It isn't mandatory, but I thought since you were new here, and still trying to learn to cope with your new situation that you might be able to benefit from confiding in someone about it." The professor said with a slight smile.

"Well... we suppose..." Schizoid said with a slight shrug. "When would the first session start?" He asked cautiously. "Today? Right now? Tomorrow? At the end of the week? Wednesdays? A year from now?"

"Whenever you want." The professor answered.

"I promise you that whatever you say will be confidential." Jean reassured him.

"We're not worried about that..." He seemed reluctant, but at least he would have someone to talk to. "Okay." He said with a slight nod.

"Thank you." The professor said with a slight smile. "Now. I understand that you don't have any clothes?"

"Yeah. The... hospital... supplied fresh clothes for us, now we need some regular ones." Schizoid said. "But we don't have any money."

"I wouldn't worry too much about that. Scott and Jean will be taking you to the mall to get some new clothes." The professor said with a nod as Jean and Scott stood up. "Are you ready to go now or do you need to take care of some things first?"

"Now's fine." Schizoid said with a smile.

"Let's go then." Jean said with a smile as she and Scott started towards the door.

Schizoid's hair changed to red and his eyes to green before he stood up. "Aye lass." He said with a smile and a nod. The change caused Scott to give him a look. "What's the matter?" Schizoid asked looking at him.

"Did your hair just change color?" Scott asked.

"Aye. Right. Shades of red. Lad. The change of hair means change of person. Markus now, Lucas then, Jack later perhaps." Schizoid said with a slight smile.

"Right..." Scott said looking to Jean who merely smiled and acted as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Obviously this was just something Scott was going to have to get used to, the rest of the faculty seemed to be able to handle it just fine.

The three left together taking Scott's car as the professor returned to his work at his desk. The car ride started out quietly, until Jean began to talk to Schizoid while he sat in the backseat, with Jean in the passenger seat and Scott driving.

"So before you came to the school, did you know anyone else who was a mutant?" Jean asked.

"Lucas knew Markus and JT. Markus knew his half brother's half brother Joe, and his old roommate in college. Long story lass. And Jack's sister." Schizoid answered. "We all knew some here and there. Why?" He asked a hint of curiosity in his voice. It was unusual to be questioned or asked that, or at least he hadn't been asked that before. "Oh, and one other at an Asylum before we were moved to the one here." He explained.

"Was he like you?" Jean asked.

"No. He was homicidal. Seriously out of his mind." Schizoid answered. "Tried to kill us. If it hadn't been for Jack we would have died."

"How were you ever in a situation where he could have done that?" Scott asked.

"There were certain... abuses at our old Asylum. The night shift liked to have some entertainment." Schizoid answered. "Basically, they were shut down by the law, and we were moved to seperate asylums."

"I'm sorry." Jean said.

"Yeah. Psychiatrists, doctors, Asylums, etc. They're not real high on our respect list." Schizoid said.

"So what kind of clothes do you like?" Scott asked as he glanced into the rear view mirror.

"Depends on who you're asking." Schizoid answered. "Markus likes Jeans and T-Shirts with sarcastic sayings. Lucas prefers the baggier pants baggier shirts, hoodies, etc. Jack likes the more classic clothes. Collar shirts, the classier end of things."

"Three different styles huh?" Scott asked.

"At this point we're willing to wear anything other than this hoody and that annoying jacket." Schizoid answered with a small smile.

The car pulled into the large mall parking lot as the group came to a stop. Jean and Schizoid got out of the car first, with Scott following behind and catching up to them as they neared the doors.

"While we're in here." Scott said as he opened the door for them. "Try to refrain from talking to anyone. We don't want people thinking you're crazy."

"Aye lad. We promise not to get you into trouble." He said with a slight smile as his hair shifted to black and his eyes to blue, noting that no one was around. A Jamaican with red hair would kind of give them away as odd.

"So what store should we go to first?" Jean asked.

"Sears?" Schizoid asked with a shrug of his shoulder. "I don't know." He said as they entered into the mall.

The three wandered the downstairs hall of the mall for a little while before coming to a neat clothing shop. They wandered in, with Scott looking at the more formal end of things, and Jean looking more at the practical and comfortable end of things. "Do you know what your sizes are?" Jean asked.

"It's been a while since..." He was about to say 'we' but he new Scott didn't want him to... "The last shopping trip." He said with a slight shrug.

"Okay." Jean said scrambling through a few articles of clothing. She seemed to be sizing him up by eyesight. She handed him three pairs of jeans, while Scott handed him a collar shirt, and a t-shirt.

"No, I don't think Green would look bad, it'll match." Schizoid said.

Scott looked at him. "Try to refrain from talking to yourself while we're in public."

"Sorry." Schizoid said with a shrug. "It slips sometimes."

"It's okay." Jean said with a reassuring smile. "Why don't you go to the dressing room and we'll just bring you clothes while you hand back the ones you don't like?"

"Okay." Schizoid said with a slight nod as he headed towards the dressing room.

**Two and a half hours later**

"Your total is two-hundred and seventy four dollars." The clerk behind the counter said as he pushed forward four large bags full of clothing.

Scott paid the man, and he and Schizoid took the bags. Jean smiled as the three left the store, with enough outfits to last him about a week and a half.

"Now for formal wear." Jean said with a smile.

"We have a Sunday outfit." Schizoid replied.

"No, you need a suit." Jean said with a cheerful tone.

"No." Schizoid answered. "No we don't."

Scott shook his head. "Let's just get back to the institute. I'm sure the professor is waiting for us."

"I wouldn't worry about the professor." Jean said with a slight smile. "Are you hungry?" Jean asked looking to Schizoid.

"A bit." Schizoid answered.

"The food court's upstairs." Jean said with a slight smile as she nodded to the escalators. They headed upstairs and walked a bit to the food court with Schizoid looking around a bit as they passed shop after shop.

Upon reaching the food court Schizoid seemed to make a decision with relative ease. Chik-fil-a. He smiled and looked to Jean. "This one okay?"

"Sure. What do you want?" Jean asked as she and Scott joined him.

"Chicken sandwich... waffle fries... vanilla milkshake." Schizoid answered with a slight smile.

"Okay." Jean said with a nod. "Scott, why don't you guys go find a table? I'll get the food." Jean said with a nod.

"Okay..." Scott said with a slight nod. "Come on." He said nodding to Schizoid.

He and Schizoid wandered a round a bit and finally picked a spot near the fountain. A group of teens across the way a bit, and an elderly couple on the other side of them. The table was large enough for four people, and Schizoid sat across from as they sat down.

"So you and Jean are married?" Schizoid asked.

"No." Scott answered. "We're dating."

"You gonna ask her to marry you?" Schizoid asked.

Scott paused and looked at him for a second. "I suppose so..."

"Markus says you're scared." Schizoid smiled.

"I'm not scared. I just don't want to scare her away." Scott answered.

"Jack says not to push you. People do things when they're ready." Schizoid says with a smile.

"Jack sounds like a smart guy." Scott said, almost unable to believe the fact that he was buying into this three person thing.

"So does your power have to do with your eyes?" Schizoid asked.

"Yes." Scott answered.

"Why the shades?" Schizoid asked.

"Because otherwise I would destroy you and everything I look at." Scott answered.

"The shades keep that from happening?" Schizoid asked, seeming ever so curious as to the nature of Cyclops and his powers. He didn't know much about the X-Men's powers and such individually, but he was learning.

"Yes." Scott answered. He didn't seem to want to get into things too much.

"Lucas likes the shades. Markus says they make you look cool." Schizoid said with a slight smile. "Maybe you can start a trend."

"So Lucas is human?" Scott asked, effectively changing the subject.

"Yeah." Schizoid answered.

"How do you know you're not a mutant?" Scott asked.

"Because the doctors said that his X-Gene was dormant." Schizoid answered.

"What doctors?" Scott asked cocking his head a bit.

"The doctors at the hospital." Schizoid answered glancing to the line where Jean was standing. She was ordering now.

"Why were you at a hospital?" Scott asked.

"Because he was sick." Schizoid answered. "Why?" He was obviously becoming uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation.

"Just curious." Scott answered. "Were you sick mentally? Physically?"

"Physically." Schizoid answered. "We know you think we're just crazy. We're not crazy." Schizoid said seeming to get a little bit angry, as was evident by his tone of his voice.

"Calm down." Scott said straightening up a bit.

"Sorry." Schizoid said as he slouched a bit in his chair. "Lucas doesn't like you."

"I don't care." Scott answered. "Let's just eat our food and then we'll go back to the Institute." He said as Jean came over carrying their food.

She sat down next to Scott and handed out the food to the respective persons. She smiled. "So what were you boys talking about?"

"Powers." Schizoid answered.

"Interesting." Jean said with a smile as she handed Schizoid his food.

The first thing he did was take the milkshake and drink a good portion of it before he even touched his food. Then he ate his food, and finished his milkshake without a word. His disposition had changed. He didn't seem as cheerful.

"Is everything okay?" Jean asked.

"We're fine." Schizoid answered. "Lucas is just upset."

"Why?" Jean asked.

"Because." He answered.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Jean asked cautiously.

"Not now." Schizoid answered.

"Okay." Jean said with a small smile as she finished up her food as well.

The three of them finished and headed out with the bags, piling them into the car. Schizoid curled up in the backseat and appeared to be napping. His eyes closed. He really was kind of small and scrawny after all. He was short, for his age, about five and a half feet tall, and he was very skinny and scrawny, no real muscle to him. He looked kind of funny curled up like that, with his dread locks covering his face from view.

"What do you think?" Jean asked as they drove, as Schizoid seemed to be asleep.

"I still think he's unstable." Scott answered. "I hope the professor's careful."

"He knows what he's doing." Jean said with a small smile.

Scott didn't answer. The rest of the drive was quiet, with Schizoid waking up when the car turned off. They got out, and Schizoid took the bags, and took them to his room. He didn't say anything, but he looked really tired. He trudged through the halls with his bags, passing his room initially. His door wasn't visible again. He stopped at the end of the hall and turned back, knocking on the door before he opened it.

Edward wasn't in the room, but his painting supplies were still in the middle. A now half finished product remained on the canvas as Schizoid set the bags on his bed. He took the clothes out and began removing the tags.

"Eventful trip?" Ed's voice made him jump.

"Where are you?" Schizoid asked looking around.

"I'm by the window." Edward said as he came into view. He was standing by the window with something in his hand.

"Don't scare us like that." Schizoid said grudgingly as he opened up the second bag of clothes. He unfolded them a bit and then took off the tags before going over to a chest of drawers. Opening the top drawer he stopped short when he went to put his clothes in. There were stacks of envelopes grouped together with rubber bands filling the drawer. "Um... What's this?"

"Letters." Edward said. "Here. I'll move them." He said as he reached over and began lifting them out.

"What are they?" Schizoid asked.

"Letters from her." He said pointing at the painting, the portrait of the girl, that was hanging on the wall.

"You two write each other?" Schizoid asked curiously.

"Once a week I get a letter, and once a week she gets a letter." He said with a slight smile as he moved the last one out. "Sorry about just sticking them in there, I didn't think I'd ever have a roommate."

"That's fine." Schizoid said with a slight nod as he began to put his new clothes into the chest of drawers.

The painting in the middle of the room looked halfway finished, at least you could tell who and what it was. It was another portrait. Scott and Jean sitting on a park bench facing each other, with flower bushes in the background behind them. Not much else on the painting was finished.

"That looks nice." Schizoid remarked.

"Thanks." Ed said with a slight smile. "I like it."

"So do you take requests?" Schizoid asked.

"Sometimes. I'm just doing this one cause Scott seemed to want it. Usually I just paint for my own benefit." Ed said with a slight smile.

"Why not try to make money at it? You're good." Schizoid suggested.

"If I did that then it would become work to paint, and I would hate the idea of picking up a paintbrush as much as you loathe the idea of doing homework. I'd rather it be fun, so I'd rather it be for fun. My own amusement more than anything else." Ed answered as he put the last of his paints away.

The room was silent for a few moments as Schizoid finished unpacking the bags, and Edward finished moving his painting so that it was out of the way. Edward sat on his bed and picked up a book, 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' as Schizoid sat down on his bed and seemed to contemplate something. The two were silent for a while, they didn't seem to have anything to say. Meanwhile in Schizoid's mind things were racing between the three people. He closed his eyes as he laid back on his bed, and soon began to drift off... or something.

"What should we do about Scott?" Markus' voice asked from the darkness that couldn't be penetrated by Lucas' eyes.

"He needs to understand we're not insane." Jack's voice uttered. "He needs to know that we're not unstable."

"But how do we do that?" Lucas asked.

"How do we do what?" Ed asked looking over to him. Evidently Lucas had spoken aloud.

"Oh..." Schizoid said sitting up. "Nevermind..."

Before another word could be said however there was a knock on the door. "Come in." Edward said with a slight nod as the door appeared on the wall before it opened. Scott was there.

"Your painting's not finished yet." Ed said with a smile.

"I'm not here for that. There's someone here to see you." Scott said looking to Edward.

"For me? Who?" Ed asked.

"I don't know." Scott answered. "The professor only told me to come and get you, and that someone is here he thinks you should meet, and he's waiting for you downstairs."

"Okay..." Ed said as he came towards the door. "I'll be right back Schizoid."

"Rightio." Schizoid said with a nod as he relaxed back a bit.

Edward and Scott exited the room, and began walking down the hall. It was clear Ed didn't know what to think, and clear that he wasn't quite sure who it was as he soon disappeared from sight all together. Scott reached the stairs and soon Ed was next to him, looking down at the professor sitting in his chair at the bottom of the stairs.

Ed began his disappeared from sight altogether as he began his descent down the stairs, with Scott following closely behind him.

The professor smiled. "Don't worry Edward. I asked for you because I thought you might want to help our newest student with their bags.

"You mean Schizoid? I thought his stuff was already in the room?"

"No, I'm not referring to Schizoid. I'm referring to a friend of yours." The professor answered as the front door opened. A girl about Ed's age entered, with a rather large smile on her face, though it soon turned to a look of confusion as she only saw the professor and Scott. She was suddenly embraced by arms that she couldn't see. Schizoid would recognize her from the painting that hung in Edward's room.

**Elsewhere**

Schizoid stood before a mirror looking at himself. His black hair hung to his shoulders as though it were exhausted and tired.

"So what do we do now? Go to school?" Lucas asked, looking into the mirror.

His hair turned to red as Markus answered, "No. I've got a degree from Oxford. We don't need to do highschool."

His hair turned blonde as JT answered, "What about Lucas and I?"

"You have access to my thoughts don't you?" Markus asked.

"Yeah. Kind of." Lucas answered.

"So you already know everything we'll learn." Markus responded. "We could even teach here."

"But we don't have complete access. We just have what you give us." Lucas answered.

"So Markus will just supply the answers as we go?" JT asked.

"Sure." Markus answered.

"No. That's cheating." Lucas said shaking his head.

"No it isn't." Markus defended.

A spark jumped from the light to Schizoid as his hair turned blonde. "Why don't we just wait and see what the professor says?" JT asked.

"The professor doesn't know what to do with us. We don't even fit in here." Markus said with a shake of his head.

"We have friends here. Ed, and Kitty, and the professor." Lucas argued.

"Great. Meanwhile the rest of the institute is scared of us, thinks we're insane, and locks their doors on us." Markus countered.

"They just don't know us yet. What would you do?" Lucas asked.

"How should we know what to do?" JT asked.

"Everybody just calm down." Markus raised his voice a little. "Why don't we go for a walk." He suggested. "Clear our head."

"Fine." Lucas said with a smile as he turned his back on the mirror. His black hair swayed as he put on a slight coat and left the room. The night was young, and he was in no mood to cooped up in doors.

**End Chapter**

**Author's Note:** Sorry it took so long.


	6. Arguments

**Sal: **I know you wanted a chapter six, so here it is. Sorry it took so long love.

**Guessswho**: No I don't think that the homicidal guy was Nny, as I'm not sure who Nny is.

**Tamarani:** Hey, glad you like the story, and the characters.

**Robbie the Phoenix:** Thank you very much for adding me to your alert list, and I'm very glad that you like the characters. I try not to add too many original characters, but when I add them I try to make them as real as the regular characters, I hope it's working out well so far.

**Author's Note: **I'm very sorry that this took so long, I'm still working on it, but new chapters are taking me forever due to school. However now summer vacation is here, so I should have more time. Also, I'm re-writing the movies a bit, for several reasons.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**Chapter 6: Arguments**

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Monday morning, a time for classes, a time for waking up and realizing that you should've worked harder over the weekend, a time of realizing that you have only a few hours of freedom left before you are required to give up the rest of your beautiful day inside a small cramped classroom. That is of course if you go to school, but for those who live at a school there is no escape.

The mansion at Xavier's was roaring with life like a busy ant-hill. Students filling the halls as they moved from their rooms to get something to eat, go to classes, or get in some fun before they actually had to go to class. It seemed that everyone was meeting everyone for the first time. Friendly shouts were given in greeting, and friends clasped hands or slapped as they past.

Edward was out of his room as well, though none noticed him, none could even see him as he walked with his back pack downstairs. He had been up most of the night with her, they had talked well into the morning, just like the old days. It turns out she wasn't just visiting, she was attending Xavier's now too. Her mutation had manifested shortly after his had, but no one had noticed it for a while. He was still unclear as to exactly what it was, but that wasn't his primary concern at the moment.

His major concern was the fact that his bedroom was empty, and had been all night. Schizoid wasn't there. He had no idea where Schizoid was, and usually it wouldn't have bothered him, but he knew that Schizoid wasn't with the professor, Scott, Jean, or Kitty either. He had checked. In fact he'd spent a little while going through the mansion, unable to find Schizoid.

"Professor." Edward said as he came down the stairs, the professor wheeling past in his chair. "We've got a problem."

"What's the matter Edward?" The professor asked as he looked over to the boy who was just now becoming visible.

"Schizoid isn't in the room, hasn't been all night. I can't find him. I think he might've run off." Edward said with an evident tone of worry in his voice.

"I'm sure there is nothing to fear." The professor said with a slight smile. "I'll see if I can find him..." The professor's face seemed to change to a more serious one as he spoke. "He's not in the mansion."

"Then where is he?" Ed asked raising a slight brow.

"I don't know. Neither does Jean." the professor said, obviously he was communicating telepathically with at least one other person at the moment. "I'm going downstairs. See if you can find out where he might've gone, or if anyone else from the mansion has gone missing. Perhaps he went out with a few friends."

"Sure." Ed answered as the Professor wheeled towards the hidden elevator that led to the downstairs, the main area of the school even though most of the students weren't allowed down there for anything other than approved activities.

The professor entered the elevator, his face wrinkled as he was deep in thought, or at least he appeared to be deep in thought, in truth he was scanning the minds in the mansion to see if anyone knew where he had gone, it didn't appear that anyone had any idea.

The elevator stopped and the professor wheeled out of it, Jean standing there with Ororo waiting for him. She had probably been in the medical lab when he had contacted her. "He's not in the mansion." Xavier said with a distressed tone in his voice. "We need to find him. If anything happens I don't know how I'll explain it." It seemed he was as worried for himself and the school as well as for Schizoid.

Jean and Ororo silently waited outside the doors of Cerebro as the professor donned the helmet that allowed him to connect with every mind on the planet. The room turned red, holographic projections of people passing by the professor as he sat motionless, eyes barely open.

After a few minutes passed before the professor reappeared from the opening doors of Cerebro, Ororo and Jean greeting him with solemn looks.

"He's at the park just down the lane. About a mile." The professor said solemnly. "His thoughts are confused, almost impossible to make any sense of." He shook his head. "Jean, would you be willing to go and pick him up?"

"Of course Professor." Jean said with a nod.

"Ororo you can go with her, I want you to speak to Lucas specifically. Ask him for Lucas. I want you two to bond, he feels as though he has no friends." The Professor said with a nod.

"Sure thing professor." Ororo said with a slight nod.

**Elsewhere**

It was a beautiful Monday morning. People in this small town woke up and began moving with the sunrise. It was like a rain that started small and built momentum as time went on. The worst part was that the park had been open for hours, and one could almost think that they were the only person to ever discover that part of land, their secret spot, only to realize that it is free to the public.

On a bench overlooking the pond sat a rather slender Jamaican teenager, his dread locks were tied back in a tail that reached his shoulders. Unlike normal hair however his was blonde in color, and his eyes a deep brown.

"What should we do then?" He asked out loud. "We've been here all night and we haven't come up with anything. Do we go to classes, do we ask if we can teach? Do we find jobs in town? Do we try to lead separate lives? What do we do?"

A moment of peace seemed to come for those around him, but not for him. He had two people shouting at him in his head. He could hear them as though they were standing right next to him, though of course no one else could hear them.

"What about the professor? Should we ask his opinion? His permission? Are we really free? JT thought it was an exchange program thing with the Asylum..."

He was right, and they all knew it. They weren't really free to do as they pleased. They were just in a different kind of holding cell. A more open cell then they had been before. Now they were in a school for mutants, and while all of them liked the idea of training their powers, none of them could agree on the regular academic side of things.

"What about Ed? Maybe we should ask his advice." He spoke aloud again.

"No. What would he say? You can't predict that lad. He's too odd." Markus' voice rang clear as a bell through their head.

"It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. How is one more opinion going to help us consolidate three? We need to just let each other live our own lives." Lucas' voice spoke up for the first time in a while.

"You mean like Lucas goes to class, Markus teaches, and JT finds a job somewhere?" He asked aloud. It seemed to be that JT was speaking out loud now, as he was the one in control of the body.

"What if we don't want to sit through your classes?" Markus asked.

"Tough." Lucas responded. "I have to sit through your teaching."

"Fine. Then we're in agreement." JT said with a slight smile as he looked at his reflection in the water. "Lucas can go to his classes. Markus can ask the professor about teaching, and JT will find a job somewhere."

"So long as we have the professor's approval." Lucas added.

"Of course lad." Markus agreed. "Of course."

"This seat taken?"

A new voice, not Markus' and not Lucas' spoke, causing the boy to turn a bit quickly, surprised. It was a familiar voice all the same though. Jean stood there with a slight smile on her face, her red hair blowing ever so slightly against her cheek because of the wind.

"Go ahead." Schizoid answered with a slight gesture to the spot on the bench next to him. "How did you know we were here?" He asked casually.

"The professor has a machine that finds mutants. Apparently you have a very unique signature, that's how we found you the first time." Jean answered as she sat down.

"We understand." He answered with a slight nod, his eyes on the reflection of the sky in the pond.

"So what are you doing out here?" Jean answered. "We were worried about you."

"We needed to talk to each other for a bit, clear our head. It was... crowded... in the mansion. We need to think some things out without being overheard or looked at strangely." He answered flatly.

"Who looks at you strangely?" Jean asked.

"Oh come on. Even your boyfriend thinks we're about to snap and kill everyone in their sleep." Schizoid answered. "That, combined with rumors, combined with... us. Equals a very tense student body."

"I'm sure they don't mean to." Jean shook her head.

"Come on. Even the weirdest of the weird look at us like we're from another reality. That Rogue girl first instance. She won't come within ten feet of us, she's scared to death. You can see it in her eyes." He picked up a pebble from the ground. "Others too. Kitty seems to be one of the only ones that actually gives us any positive attention. She's a nice girl." He said as he tossed the pebble into the water, creating a ripple effect as the pebble sunk to the bottom.

"Just let them get used to you." Jean said. "It always takes a little bit of adjustment when a new student comes. I'm sure with time you'll have lots of friends."

"Right. Cause Lucas, the shy nerd who never puts down his books will go out and be popular. JT won't be looked at as a jerk by the ladies, and Markus, well of course an Oxford Graduate and a Professional Engineer will get along extremely well with a bunch of highschoolers." He laughed.

"You make it sound worse than the Asylum." Jean said with a slight laugh.

"It can be." Schizoid answered with a shake of his head, the blonde dread locks shaking loose from the pony-tail a bit.

"You don't mean that." Jean said shaking her head.

"No. We don't. But we're not accepted there. It's not the best place for us." Schizoid answered. "Lucas wants to go to school, Markus wants to teach, JT just wants to go surfing again. The student body doesn't really know what to do with us. Half of them are scared of us, more of them are too curious about us to do anything but stare at us as we walk by. Ed's the only decent one. He treats us like we're a person."

"So does the Professor, and myself, and Scott." Jean defended.

"Scott thinks we're a dangerous menace to society. We can tell. He thinks we're going to go crazy and kill everyone." Schizoid answered.

"He just doesn't know what to think of you. He can't see what the professor and I see." Jean answered.

"And what is that?" Schizoid asked.

"Three confused men, who are stuck together, and can't decide what they want to do with the rest of their life." Jean answered. "They're not just voices in your head. They're people. I believe that."

"You sound almost as crazy as we do." Schizoid smiled, the first smile for the whole conversation.

"Well it took some getting used to, but even the slow learners get it eventually." Jean smiled back at him. "Come back to the Institute. Ororo's waiting with the car."

Schizoid stood up, a little roughly. "Let's go then. Lucas wants to get back in time to go to some classes."

"Sure." Jean said with a slight smile as she stood up. "And we'll talk to the professor about Markus teaching."

"You think he'll go for it?" He asked with a slight hint of hopefulness in his voice. It seemed that was the only chance of getting peace for all three of them.

"I don't know." Jean answered honestly. "I think he'll be willing to consider it, give it a shot. And don't worry, Scott won't have a say in it one way or the other."

The two of them laughed for a few split moments as they walked to the car that Ororo sat behind the wheel of to the end of the park. Jean opened the back door for Schizoid as Ororo got out of the driver's seat, and moved to sit in the back seat with Schizoid. Jean moved to the driver's side after she shut the door behind Schizoid.

"Can I talk to Lucas?" Ororo asked looking to him.

"What's wrong with JT?" He asked looking to her.

"The Professor wanted me to talk to Lucas specifically." Ororo said with a slight smile. "If I have to explain it."

Schizoid didn't say another word, but his blonde hair turned black, and his brown eyes shone blue with a sparkle to them that seemed to be joyful, even though the expression on the face was still in a frown.

"The professor tells me your from Boston." Ororo smiled.

"Originally yeah..." The boy's gaze turned away from her and turned towards the window, watching the park fly away from view.

"And that your Uncle in New York took you out of the Asylum for a while." Ororo said as if asking for verification.

"That's when we met JT." Lucas added.

"Right." Ororo nodded.

Lucas looked back to her, but his gaze quickly returned to the window, a slight blush hitting his cheeks, though it was barely visible. It seemed that Lucas was the shy one out of the bunch, and that nothing Ororo could say could really break the shell that he had set up to try and hide himself from it.

"Jean tells me you want to go to classes and get your highschool diploma." Ororo stated, it sounded like she kept mentioning things for Lucas to verify.

"Yeah. Lucas does. Markus already has his college diploma, and JT graduated highschool, so neither of them want to go through it again." He answered.

"I see. Well why don't you tell me what kind of things you're interested in so I can work out a class schedule for you." The woman smiled as the car pulled into the Xavier Institute's driveway.

"Is that..." Jean's voice came from the front seat, the first time for the entire little excursion since they had gotten into the car.

Schizoid looked out the window, a motorcycle stood just outside the front doors of the Institute, a little bit of wear and tear on it.

"That's Scotts bike." Ororo confirmed.

"Doesn't look like he takes very good care of it." Schizoid smirked.

"No... Someone else took it for a while." Ororo said with a slight smile as Jean pulled the car into the garage.

The three got out of the car as soon as it had pulled to a stop. It seemed as though they were all eager to get back to whatever it was they were dealing with in their minds at the time.

"So who is it that came back with the motorcycle?" Schizoid asked as he looked up to Jean. Jean didn't respond to him, merely moved towards the door that led inside. It was odd, it was the first unfriendly action he had witnessed her commit. Ororo didn't seem surprised at all, she just followed Jean's lead and began moving to the door. "Never mind we'll figure it out on our own." He responded to the silence that followed his own question.

The three of them, Jean, Ororo, and Schizoid made their way through the halls of the Institute and into the main foyer. There stood a man with black unkept hair that stood out to the sides, a white wife-beater on his torso and a pair of denim jeans covering his legs. He had a bit of hair on the bottom of his face, but not a full beard, just a bit of stubble. It looked like he'd been out in the wild for a few weeks or something.

"Miss me?" The man asked looking to Jean.

Rogue and Bobby were also there, Rogue slipping behind Bobby as Schizoid moved forward.

"Well look who's come back." Ororo said with a small smile.

"Hi Logan." Jean said.

Schizoid was actually quiet for the first time when confronted with a new face, at least recently, he seemed to be keeping his eye on Rogue, who looked at him as though he were going to kill her. Lucas seemed to be a little tired of her fear of them to the point of boredom.

"Storm. Jean." The man said a bit more solemnly as he nodded to each of them respectively. "And who's this?" He asked looking to the boy who was clearly with the two of them.

"We are Schizoid." Schizoid answered for himself. The young African-American boy was a little shorter than Wolverine, and not half as intimidating but he didn't seem to be scared of the new man at all.

"The kids that Charles picks up." Logan muttered.

"We're not a child." Schizoid responded, then seemed to change his mind. "We're a student."

"Whatever Schizo." Logan replied. "So, where is chuckie-boy anyway?"

"He and Scott had an appointment to see an old friend of the professor's." Ororo answered. "Schizoid here decided to leave last night and Jean and I had to bring him back."

"That so?" Logan asked.

"Yeah. You planning on sticking around for a while?" Ororo asked curiously. "We're going on a field trip tomorrow. We could use an extra chaperone."

"Where are we going?" Schizoid asked.

"To the museum of natural history." Ororo answered. "It'll be fun."

"We'll see." Logan responded.

"Hooray and now the Wolverine will join us." Schizoid said with a smirk.

"How did you know that name?" Logan asked, looking to him. "No one had mentioned it. You a psychic?"

"No. Lucas is human." Schizoid answered.

"And neither Markus or JT have Psychic abilities." Jean added.

"Who?" Logan asked.

"Nevermind." Jean said waving him off.

"He heard someone say the name. That's all." Ororo shrugged.

"No. Markus knows it." Schizoid answered. "His father knows it."

"What?" Logan asked, a look of confusion on his face.

"Nevermind." Schizoid shook his head. "We'll be upstairs." He said moving towards the stairs.

"No wait." Logan said moving forward. "What do you know about me?"

"Just the stories Markus' father told him. War, blood, comrades, the wolverine." Schizoid answered. "Bed time stories." The boy said with a slight smile.

"You two know each other?" Bobby asked, he and Rogue were still there, standing in the background.

"No." Schizoid answered. "Markus' father knew him. That's all."

"Who's Markus?" Logan asked looking to Jean.

"Markus is one of the people... inside Schizoid." Jean answered.

"What?" Logan asked, more than confusion, desperation, in his voice. None of this was making any sense at all. None of it.

"We're going upstairs." Schizoid said again, repeating himself as he moved towards the stairs.

"Wait." Jean said looking to Schizoid. "Logan, I'll explain it in the professor's office. Schizoid why don't you and Ororo go and get your class schedule together."

"Okay." Logan said as Jean gestured him into the professor's office.

Schizoid, Bobby, Rogue, and Ororo were left in the foyer, the fireplace flickering behind them as the wind outside beat against the doors.

"You're starting classes?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah. Lucas wants to finish highschool." Schizoid answered.

"Cool. Maybe we'll have some classes together." Bobby said with a slight smile.

"Yeah. Maybe." Schizoid answered. "Can we go on the field trip tomorrow?" He asked looking to Ororo.

"I don't see why not." Ororo said with a smile. "You are a student after all."

"Cool. We'll get to hang out a bit." Bobby said with a nod.

"You want to hang out with us?" Schizoid asked.

"We've hung out before haven't we? We're friends aren't we?" Bobby asked with a smile.

"We guess so." Schizoid answered.

"See then?" Bobby said with a smile. "You, me, Rogue, and John. The four of us will hang out at the museum tomorrow."

"Sure." Schizoid said. "Sounds fine with us."

Ororo smiled as she and Schizoid moved towards the stairs, moving upstairs to work out a class schedule. Her mouth making the words "thank you" silently reach Bobby who just smiled and nodded them off.

"What'd you do that for?" Rogue asked as soon as the two were out of sight, her gloved hand slapping his arm.

"Jean asked me to." Bobby answered. "And besides, he seems like a nice guy, he's just... different."

"He scares me." Rogue stated honestly. "I... I don't like him."

"Don't worry Rogue. Everything will be okay. You've got me and John there too. It's not like we're making you be alone with the guy. Besides. He seems like a nice guy. He wouldn't do anything to hurt any of us."

"The guy doesn't even know who he is." Rogue responded as she shook her head. "He makes me nervous."

"I know." Bobby said, holding her hand and giving it a light squeeze. "But trust me. It'll be fine. Just wait till tomorrow."

"You swear you won't leave me alone with him?" Rogue asked squeezing his hand.

"I promise." Bobby said with a smile. "It'll be you, me, John, and... Lucas. Just hanging out and having fun."

**End of Chapter 6  
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